HISTORY   OF 
ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 


BOOKS    BY    CHARLES    SEIGNOBOS 

Translated  and  edited  under  the  direction  of 
James  Atton  James,  Ph.D. 

Published  by  CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


History  of  Ancient  Civilization    .    ,    ,  net  $1.25 

History  of  Mediaeval  and  Modern  Civil- 
ization     •    .    •    •  net  $1.25 

History  of  Contemporary  Civilization  .  net  $1.25 


HISTORY  OF 

ANCIENT  CIVILIZATION 


BY 

CHARLES    SEIGNOBOS 

Doctor  of  letters  of  the  University  of  Paris 


TRANSLATED  AND  EDITED  BY 
ARTHUR    HERBERT    WILDE 

Professor  of  History,  Northwestern  University 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 
JAMES    ALTON   JAMES,  Ph.D. 

Professor  of  History,  Northwestern  University 


NEW  YORK 
CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 

1912 


HISTOfin 


COPYRIGHT,    1906,    BY 
CHARLES   SCRIBNER's   SONS 


545  Va 


INTRODUCTORY    NOTE 

During  the  year  1900,  the  "Histoire  de  la  Civih- 
sation"  by  M.  Charles  Seignobos  appeared  as  three 
volumes  in  the  third  edition  and  as  two  volumes  in 
the  sixth  edition.  It  seemed  that  a  work  so  meri- 
torious and  so  widely  used,  especially  in  the  second- 
ary schools  of  France,  would  be  of  value  to  teachers 
and  pupils  in  American  schools.  The  ability  of  the 
author  to  select  significant  events  in  the  political  and 
social  history  of  the  various  nations  is  notable.  Pro- 
fessor Seignobos  willingly  gave  his  consent  to  having 
the  translation  made. 

It  was  thought  best  to  select  material  from  both 
the  three  volumes  and  the  two  volumes  in  so  far 
as  the  one  supplemented  the  other.  Ordinarily,  the 
original  three-volume  edition  has  been  used. 

In  some  particulars  the  work  is  not  merely  a 
translation.  Phrases  here  and  there  not  regarded 
as  essential  to  an  understanding  of  the  text  have  been 
omitted.  The  tables  of  contents  have  been  made 
more  usable.  An  index  has  been  added  to  each  vol- 
ume, and  a  general  bibliography  has  been  prepared 
for  each  period. 

It  is  believed  desirable  to  give  American  readers 
the  following  brief  notice  of  Professor  Seignobos. 
He  was  born  in  Lamastre,  France,  in  the  year  1854. 


vi  INTRODUCTORY   NOTE 

After  a  course  of  study  in  the  "  Ecole  Normale  Su- 
per ieure,"  he  spent  two  years  in  the  universities  of 
Germany,  making  a  study  of  their  courses  in  his- 
tory. In  1879  h^  was  elected  Professor  of  History 
in  the  University  of  Dijon.  He  was  called  to  a  pro- 
fessorship in  the  Sorbonne  in  1883,  and  in  1890  was 
made  Maitre  des  Conferences  at  the  Sorbonne,  and 
is  now  Maitre  des  Conferences  in  the  "Faculte  des 
Lettres"  of  Paris.  Professor  Seignobos  occupies  a 
place  of  prominence  among  modern  French  histo- 
rians and  is  also  a  leader  in  the  cause  of  secondary 
education. 

In  addition  to  the  "Histoire  de  la  Civilisation"  he 
is  the  author  of  numerous  historical  works.  Among 
the  more  important  are :  "Le  regime  feodal  en  Bour- 
gogne";  "Histoire  narrative  et  descriptive  des  an- 
ciens  peuples  de  I'Orient";  ''Scenes  et  episodes  de 
I'histoire  nationale";  "Histoire  politique  de  I'Europe 
contemporaine."  He  is  joint  author  with  M.  Lang- 
lois  of  ''Introduction  aux  etudes  historiques." 

James  Alton  James. 

Northwestern  University,  April  20,  1906. 


EDITOR'S    PREFACE 

In  preparing  this  volume,  I  have  used  both  the 
three-volume  edition  and  the  two-volume  edition  of 
the  "Histoire  de  la  Civilisation."  I  have  usually 
preferred  the  order  of  topics  of  the  two-volume  edi- 
tion, but  have  supplemented  the  material  therein  with 
other  matter  drawn   from  the  three-volume  edition. 

A  few  corrections  to  the  text  have  been  given  in 
foot-notes.  These  notes  are  always  clearly  distin- 
guished from  the  elucidations  of  the  author. 

I  have  had  the  benefit  of  a  critical  reading  of  the 
manuscript  by  my  colleague,  Professor  James  Alton 
James,  at  whose  suggestion  the  work  of  translation 
was  undertaken. 

Arthur  H.  Wilde, 
Northwestern  University, 

EvANSTON,  III.,  April  20,  1906. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   I 

Prehistoric  Times.  Prehistoric  archaeology — Prehistoric  re- 
mains; their  antiquity — Prehistoric  science — The  four  ages. 

The  Rough  Stone  Age.  Remains  found  in  the  gravels — The 
cave-men. 

The  Polished  Stone  Age.  Lake-villages — Megalithic  mon- 
uments. 

The  Bronze  Age.     Bronze — Bronze  objects. 

The  Iron  Age.  Iron — Iron  weapons — Epochs  of  the  Iron 
Age. 

Conclusions:  How  the  four  ages  are  to  be  conceived;  uncer- 
tainties;  solved  questions. 

CHAPTER   II 

History   and   the    Documents.     History — Legends — History 

in  general — Great  divisions  of  history — Ancient  history — 

Modern  history — The  Middle  Ages. 
Sources  for  the  History  of  Ancient  Civilizations.     Books 

— Monuments — Inscriptions — Languages — Lacunae. 
Races     and     Peoples.     Anthropology — The    races — Civilized 

peoples — Aryans  and  Semites. 

CHAPTER   III 

The  Egyptians.  Egypt — The  country — ^The  Nile — Fertility  of 
the  soil — The  accounts  of  Herodotus — Champollion — Egyp- 
tologists— Discoveries. 

The  Egyptian  Empire.  Antiquity  of  the  Egyptian  people — 
Memphis  and  the  pyramids — Egyptian  civilization — Thebes 
— The  Pharaoh — The  subjects — Despotism — Isolation  of 
the  Egyptians. 

Religion  of  the  Egyptians.  The  gods — Osiris — Ammon-ra — 
Gods  with  animal  heads — Sacred  animals — The  bull  Apis 
— Worship  of  the  dead — Judgment  of  the  soul — Mummies 
— Book  of  the  Dead — The  arts — Industry — Architecture — 
Tombs — Temples — Sculpture — Painting — Literature — Des- 
tinies of  the  Egyptian  civilization. 
ix 


,/ 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER   IV 

The  Assyrians  and  Babylonians.  Chaldea — ^The  land — ^The 
people — The  cities. 

The  Assyrians — Assyria — Origins — Ancient  accounts — Modern 
discoveries — Inscriptions  on  bricks — Cuneiform  writing — 
The  Assyrian  people — The  king — Fall  of  the  Assyrian  Em- 
pire. 

The  Babylonians.  The  second  Chaldean  empire — ^Babylon — 
The  Tower  of  Babylon. 

Customs  and  Religion.  Customs — Religion — ^The  gods — As- 
trology— Sorcery — The  sciences. 

The  Arts.     Architecture — Palaces — Sculpture. 

CHAPTER   V 

The  Aryans  of  India.  The  Aryans — Aryan  languages — ^The 
Aryan  people. 

Primitive  Religion  of  the  Hindoos.  The  Aryans  on  the 
Indus — The  Vedas — The  gods — Indra — Agni — The  cult — 
Worship  of  ancestors. 

Brahmanic  Society.  The  Hindoos  on  the  Ganges — Castes — 
The  Impure — The  Brahmans — The  new  religion  of  Brahma 
— Transmigration  of  souls — Character  of  this  religion — The 
rites — Purity — Penances — The  monks. 

Buddhism.         Buddha — Nirvana — Charity — Fraternity — Toler- 
ance— Later  history  of  Buddhism — Changes  in  Buddhism 
— Buddha  transformed  into  a  god — Mechanical  prayer —       j 
Amelioration  of  manners. 

CHAPTER   VI 

The  Persians.     The  religion  of  Zoroaster — Iran — The  Iranians    \ 
— Zoroaster — The   Zend-Avesta — Ormuzd   and   Ahriman —     '\* 
Angels  and  demons — Creatures  of   Ormuzd  and  Ahriman 
— The    cult — Morality — Funerals — Destiny   of    the   soul — 
Character  of  Mazdeism. 

The  Persian  Empire.  The  Medes — The  Persians — Cyrus — 
The  inscription  of  Behistun — The  Persian  empire — The 
satrapies — Revenues  of  the  empire — ^The  Great  King — ■ 
Services  rendered  by  the  Persians — Susa  and  Persepolis — 
Persian  architecture. 

CHAPTER   VII 

The    Phcenicians.     The    Phoenician    people — ^The    land; — ^The    \^ 
cities — Phoenician  ruins — Organization  of  the  Phoenicians — ■ 
Tyre — Carthage — Carthaginian  army — The  Carthaginians — 
The  Phoenician  religion. 


/ 


CONTENTS  xi 

Phcenician  Commerce.  Occupations  of  the  Phoenicians — Cara- 
vans— Marine  commerce — Commodities — Secret  kept  by 
the  Phoenicians — Colonies — Influence  of  the  Phoenicians — 
The  alphabet. 

CHAPTER   VIII 

The  Hebrews.  Origin  of  the  Hebrew  people — The  Bible — 
The  Hebrews — The  patriarchs — The  Israelites — The  call  of 
Moses — Israel  in  the  desert — The  Promised  Land. 

The  Religion  of  Israel.  One  God — The  people  of  God — The 
covenant — The  Ten  Commandments — The  Law — Religion 
constituted  the  Jewish  people. 

The  Empire  of  Israel.  The  Judges — The  Kings — Jerusalem 
— ^The  tabernacle — The  temple. 

The  Prophets.  Disasters  of  Israel — Sentiments  of  the  Israel- 
ites— The  prophets — The  new  teaching — The  Messiah. 

The  Jewish  People.  Return  to  Jerusalem — The  Jews — The 
synagogues — Destruction  of  the  temple — The  Jews  after 
the  dispersion. 

CHAPTER   IX 

Greece  and  the  Greeks.  The  country — The  sea — ^The  climate 
—Simplicity  of  Greek  life — The  people — Origin  of  the 
Greeks — Legends — The  Trojan  War — The  Homeric  Poems — 
The  Greeks  at  the  time  of  Homer — The  Dorians — The  loni- 
ans — The  Hellenes — The  cities. 

The  Hellenes  Beyond  the  Sea.  Colonization — Character  of 
the  colonies — Traditions  touching  the  colonies — Importance 
of  the  Greek  colonies. 

CHAPTER   X 

Greek  Religion.  The  gods — Polytheism — Anthropomorphism 
— Mythology — Local  gods — The  great  gods — Attributes  of 
the  gods — Olympus  and  Zeus — Morality  of  the  Greek 
mythology. 

The  Heroes.  Various  sorts  of  heroes — Presence  of  the  heroes — 
Intervention  of  the  heroes. 

Worship.  Principle  of  the  cult  of  the  gods — ^The  great  feasts — 
The  sacred  games — Omens — Oracles — Amphictyonies. 


CHAPTER   XI 

Sparta.     The   People  -^Laconia — The   Helots — The    Perioeci — 

Condition  of  the  Spartiates. 
Education.     The     children — The     girls — The     discipline — La- 

conism — Music — The  dance — Heroism  of  the  women. 


xu  CONTENTS 

Institutions.  The  kings  and  the  council— The  ephors— The 
army — The  hoplites — The  phalanx — Gymnastics — Athletes 
— R61e  of  the  Spartiates. 


CHAPTER  XII 

Athens,  Origins  of  the  Athenian  people — Attica — Athens — 
The  revolutions  in  Athens — Reforms  of  Cleisthenes. 

The  Athenian  People.  The  slaves — ^The  foreigners — The 
citizens. 

The  Government.  The  assembly — The  courts — The  magis- 
trates— Character  of  the  government — ^The  demagogues. 

Private  Life.     Children — Marriage — Women. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

Wars.  The  Persian  wars — Origin  of  these  wars — Comparison 
of  the  two  adversaries — First  Persian  war— Second  Persian 
war — Reasons  for  the  victory  of  the  Greeks — Results  of 
the  wars. 

Wars  of  the  Greeks  among  Themselves.  The  Pelopon- 
nesian  war — War  with  Sparta — Savage  character  of  the 
wars — Effects  of  these  wars. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

The  Arts  in  Greece.  Athens  in  the  time  of  Pericles — Pericles 
— Athens  and  her  monuments — Importance  of  Athens. 

Letters.  Orators — Sages — Sophists — Socrates  and  the  phi- 
losophers— The  chorus — Tragedy  and  comedy — Theatre. 

Arts.  The  Grecian  temples — Characteristics  of  Grecian  archi- 
tecture— Sculpture — Pottery — Painting. 


CHAPTER   XV 

The  Greeks  in  the  Orient.  Asia  before  Alexander — Deca- 
dence of  the  Persian  empire — Expedition  of  the  Ten  Thou- 
sand— Agesilaus. 

Conquest  of  Asia  by  Alexander.  Macedon — Philip — Demos- 
thenes— The  Macedonian  supremacy — Alexander — The  pha- 
lanx— Departure  of  Alexander — Victories  of  Granicus,  Issus, 
and  Arbela — Death  of  Alexander — Projects  of  Alexander. 

The  Hellenes  in  the  Orient.  Dismemberment  of  the  empire 
of  Alexander — The  Hellenistic  kingdoms — Alexandria — 
Museum — Pergamum. 


CONTENTS  xiii 


CHAPTER  XVI 


Later  Period  of  Grecian  History.  Decadence  of  the  cities — 
Rich  and  poor — Strife  between  rich  and  poor — Democracy 
and  oligarchy — The  tyrants — Exhaustion  of  Greece. 

The  Roman  Conquest.  The  leagues — The  allies  of  the  Romans 
— The  last  struggles. 

The  Hellenes  in  the  Occident.  Influence  of  Greece  on 
Rome  —  Architecture  —  Sculpture  —  Literature  —  Epicu- 
reans and  Stoics. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

Ancient  Peoples  of  Italy.  The  Etruscans — Etruria — The 
Etruscan  people — The  Etruscan  tombs — Industry  and 
commerce — Religion — The  augurs — Influence  of  the  Etrus- 
cans. 

The  Italian  People.  Umbrians  and  Oscans — The  Sacred 
Spring — The  Samnites — The  Greeks  of  Italy. 

Latins  and  Romans.  The  Latins — Rome — Roma  Quadrata 
and  the  Capitol. 

CHAPTER   XVIII 

Religion  and  the  Family.  Religion — The  Roman  gods — 
Form  of  the  ^ods — Principle  of  the  Roman  religion — Wor- 
ship— Formalism — Prayer — Omens — The  priests. 

Worship  of  Ancestors.  The  dead — Worship  of  the  dead — 
Cult  of  the  hearth. 

The  Family.  Religion  of  the  family — Marriage — Women — 
Children — Father  of  the  family. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

The  Roman  City.  Formation  of  the  Roman  people — The 
kings — The  Roman  people — The  plebeians — Strife  between 
patricians  and  plebeians — The  tnbunes  of  the  plebs — Tri- 
umph of  the  plebs. 

The  Roman  People.  Right  of  citizenship — The  nobles — The 
knights — The  plebs — Freedmen. 

The  Government  of  the  Republic  The  comitia — Magis- 
trates— Censors — Senate — The  course  of  offices. 


CHAPTER   XX 

Roman  Conquest.  The  Roman  army — Military  service — The 
levy — Legions  and  allies — Military  exercises — Camp — Or- 
der of  battle — Discipline — Colonies  and  military  roads. 


xiv  CONTENTS 

Character  of  the  Conquests.  War — Conquest  of  Italy — 
Punic  wars — Hannibal — Conquest  of  the  Orient — Conquest 
of  barbarian  lands — The  triumph — Booty — Allies  of  Rome 
— Motives  of  conquest. 

Results  of  the  Conquests.  Empire  of  the  Roman  people — 
The  public  domain — Agrarian  laws. 


CHAPTER   XXI 

The  Conquered  Peoples.  The  provincials — Provinces — The 
proconsuls — Tyranny  and  oppression  of  the  proconsuls — 
The  publicans — Bankers — Defencelessness  of  the  provin- 
cials. 

Slavery.  Sale  of  slaves — Condition  of  slaves — Number  of 
slaves — Urban  slaves — Rural  slaves — Treatment  of  slaves 
— Ergastulum  and  mill — Character  of  the  slaves — Revolts 
— Admission  to  citizenship. 

CHAPTER   XXII 

Transformation  of  Life  in  Rome.  Influence  of  Greece  and 
the  Orient. 

Changes  in  Religion.  Greek  gods — The  Bacchanals — Super- 
stitions of  the  Orient — Sceptics. 

Changes  in  Manners.  The  old  customs — Cato  the  Elder — 
The  new  manners — Oriental  luxury — Greek  humanity — 
Lucullus — The  new  education — New  status  of  women — 
Divorce. 

CHAPTER   XXIII 

Fall  of  the  Republic.  Causes  of  the  decadence — Destruction 
of  the  peasant  class — The  city  plebs — Electoral  corruption 
— Corruption  of  the  Senate — Corruption  of  the  army. 

The  Revolution.  Necessity  of  the  revolution — Civil  wars — 
The  Gracchi — Marius  and  Sulla — Pompey  and  Caesar— End 
of  the  Republic — Need  of  peace — Power  of  the  individual. 


CHAPTER   XXIV 

The  Empire  at  Its  Height.  The  twelve  Caesars — The  em- 
peror— Apotheosis — Senate  and  people — The  praetorians — 
Freedmen  of  the  emperors — Despotism  and  disorder. 

The  Century  of  the  Antonines.  Marcus  Aurelius — Con- 
quests of  the  Antonines. 

Imperial  Institutions.  Extent  of  the  empire  in  the  second 
century — Permanent  army — ^Deputies  and  agents  of  the 
emperor — Municipal  life — Imperial  regime. 


CONTENTS  XV 

Social  Life  Under  the  Empire.  The  continued  decadence  at 
Rome  —  The  shows  —  Theatre  —  Circus  —  Amphitheatre 
— Gladiators — The  Roman  peace — Fusion  of  the  peoples — 
Superstitions. 

CHAPTER   XXV 

Arts  and  Sciences  in  Rome.  Letters — Imitation  of  the  Greeks 
— The  Augustan  Age — Orators  and  rhetoricians — Impor- 
tance of  the  Latin  literature  and  language — Arts — Sculpture 
and  painting — Architecture — Characteristics  of  Roman 
architecture — Rome  and  its  monuments. 

Roman  Law.  The  Twelve  Tables — Symbolic  process — For- 
malism— Jurisprudence — The  praetor's  edict — Civil  law 
and  the  law  of  nations — Written  reason. 


CHAPTER   XXVI 

The  Christian  Religion.  Origin  of  Christianity — Christ — 
Charity — Equality — Poverty  and  humility — The  kingdom 
of  God. 

First  Centuries  of  the  Church.  Disciples  and  apostles — 
The  church — Sacred  books — Persecutions — Martyrs — Cata- 
combs. 

The  Monks  of  the  Third  Century.  Solitaries — Asceticism — 
Cenobites. 

CHAPTER   XXVII 

The  Later  Empire.  The  revolutions  of  the  third  century — 
Military  anarchy — Worship  of  Mithra — Taurobolia — Con- 
fusion of  religions. 

Regime  of  the  Later  Empire.  Reforms  of  Diocletian  and 
Constantine — Constantinople — The  palace — The  officials — 
Society  of  the  later  empire. 

Church  and  State.  Triumph  of  Christianity — Organization  of 
the   church — Councils — Heretics — Paganism — Theodosius. 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  ORIGINS  OF  CIVILIZATION 

PREHISTORIC   ARCHEOLOGY 

Prehistoric  Remains. — One  often  finds  buried  in  the 
earth,  weapons,  implements,  human  skeletons,  debris 
of  every  kind  left  by  men  of  whom  we  have  no  direct 
knowledge.  These  are  dug  up  by  the  thousand  in  all 
the  provinces  of  France,  in  Switzerland,  in  England, 
in  all  Europe ;  they  are  found  even  in  Asia  and  Africa. 
It  is  probable  that  they  exist  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

These  remains  are  called  prehistoric  because  they  are 
more  ancient  than  written  history.  For  about  fifty 
years  men  have  been  engaged  in  recovering  and  study- 
ing them.  Today  most  museums  have  a  hall,  or  at 
least,  some  cases  filled  with  these  relics.  A  museum 
at  Saint-German-en-Laye,  near  Paris,  is  entirely  given 
up  to  prehistoric  remains.  In  Denmark  is  a  collection 
of  more  than  30,000  objects.  Every  day  adds  to  the 
discoveries  as  excavations  are  made,  houses  built,  and 
cuts  made  for  railroads. 

These  objects  are  not  found  on  the  surface  of  the 
ground,  but  ordinarily  buried  deeply  where  the  earth 
has  not  been  disturbed.  They  are  recovered  from  a 
stratum  of  gravel  or  clay  which  has  been  deposited 
gradually  and  has  fixed  them  in  place  safe  from  the 
air,  a  sure  proof  that  they  have  been  there  for  a  long 
time. 


2  ANCIENT  CIVILIZATION 

Prehistoric  Science. — Scholars  have  examined  the 
debris  and  have  asked  themselves  what  men  have  left 
them.  From  their  skeletons,  they  have  tried  to  con- 
struct their  physical  appearance;  from  their  tools,  the 
kind  of  life  they  led.  They  have  determined  that  these 
instruments  resemble  those  used  by  certain  savages 
today.  The  study  of  all  these  objects  constitutes  a 
new  science,  Prehistoric  Archaeology.^ 

The  Four  Ages. — Prehistoric  remains  come  down  to 
us  from  very  diverse  races  of  men;  they  have  been 
deposited  in  the  soil  at  widely  different  epochs  since 
the  time  when  the  mammoth  lived  in  western  Europe, 
a  sort  of  gigantic  elephant  with  woolly  hide  and  curved 
tusks.  This  long  lapse  of  time  may  be  divided  into 
four  periods,  called  Ages : 

1.  The  Rough  Stone  Age. 

2.  The  Polished  Stone  Age. 

3.  The  Bronze  Age. 

4.  The  Iron  Age. 

The  periods  take  their  names  from  the  materials 
used  in  the  manufacture  of  the  tools, — stone,  bronze, 
iron.  These  epochs,  however,  are  of  very  unequal 
length.  It  may  be  that  the  Rough  Stone  Age  was  ten 
times  as  long  as  the  Age  of  Iron. 

THE  ROUGH  STONE  AGE 

Gravel  DIbris. — The  oldest  remains  of  the  Stone 
Age  have  been  found  in  the  gravels.  A  French  scholar 
found  between  1841  and  1853,  in  the  valley  of  the 
Somme,  certain  sharp  instruments  made  of  flint.    They 

*  It  originated  especially  with  French,  Swiss,  and  Danish 
scholars. 


THE    ORIGINS   OF   CIVILIZATION  3 

were  buried  to  a  depth  of  six  metres  in  gravel  under 
three  layers  of  clay,  gravel,  and  marl  which  had  never 
been  broken  up.  In  the  same  place  they  discovered 
bones  of  cattle,  deer,  and  elephants.  For  a  long  time 
people  made  light  of  this  discovery.  They  said  that 
the  chipping  of  the  flints  was  due  to  chance.  At 
last,  in  i860,  several  scholars  came  to  study  the  remains 
in  the  valley  of  the  Somme  and  recognized  that  the 
flints  had  certainly  been  cut  by  men.  Since  then  there 
have  been  found  more  than  5,000  similar  flints  in  strata 
,of  the  same  order  either  in  the  valley  of  the  Seine  or 
in  England,  and  some  of  them  by  the  side  of  human 
bones.  There  is  no  longer  any  doubt  that  men  were 
living  at  the  epoch  when  the  gravel  strata  were  in 
process  of  formation.  If  the  strata  that  cover  these 
remains  have  always  been  deposited  as  slowly  as  they 
are  today,  these  men  whose  bones  and  tools  we  unearth 
must  have  lived  more  than  200,000  years  ago. 

The  Cave  Men. — Remains  are  also  found  in  caverns 
cut  in  rock,  often  above  a  river.  The  most  noted  are 
those  on  the  banks  of  the  Vezere,  but  they  exist  in  many 
other  places.  Sometimes  they  have  been  used  as  habi- 
tations and  even  as  graves  for  men.  Skeletons, 
weapons,  and  tools  are  found  here  together.  There 
are  axes,  knives,  scrapers,  lance-points  of  flint ;  arrows, 
harpoon-points,  needles  of  bone  like  those  used  by  cer- 
tain savages  to  this  day.  The  soil  is  strewn  with  the 
bones  of  animals  which  these  men,  untidy  like  all  sav- 
ages, threw  into  a  corner  after  they  had  eaten  the  meat ; 
they  even  split  the  bones  to  extract  the  marrow  just 
as  savages  do  now.  Among  the  animals  are  found  not 
only  the  hare,  the  deer,  the  ox,  the  horse,  the  salmon, 


4  ANCIENT  CIVILIZATION 

but  also  the  rhinoceros,  the  cave-bear,  the  mammoth, 
the  elk,  the  bison,  the  reindeer,  which  are  alf  extinct  or 
have  long  disappeared  from  France.  Some  designs 
have  been  discovered  engraved  on  the  bone  of  a  rein- 
deer or  on  the  tusk  of  a  mammoth.  One  of  these 
represents  a  combat  of  reindeer;  another  a  mammoth 
with  woolly  hide  and  curved  tusks.  Doubtless  these 
men  were  the  contemporaries  of  the  mammoth  and 
the  reindeer.  They  were,  like  the  Esquimaux  of  our 
day,  a  race  of  hunters  and  fishermen,  knowing  how  to 
work  in  flint  and  to  kindle  fires. 

V 

POLISHED  STONE  AGE 

Lake  Dwellings — In  1854,  Lake  Zurich  being  very 
low  on  account  of  the  unusual  dryness  of  the  summer, 
dwellers  on  the  shore  of  the  lake  found,  in  the  mud, 
wooden  piles  which  had  been  much  eaten  away,  also 
some  rude  utensils.  These  were  the  remains  of  an 
ancient  village  built  over  the  water.  Since  this  time 
more  than  200  similar  villages  have  been  found  in  the 
lakes  of  Switzerland.  They  have  been  called  Lake 
Villages.  The  piles  on  which  they  rest  are  trunks 
of  trees,  pointed  and  driven  into  the  lake-bottom  to 
a  depth  of  several  yards.  Every  village  required 
30,000  to  40,000  of  these. 

A  wooden  platform  was  supported  by  the  pile  work 
and  on  this  were  built  wooden  houses  covered  with  turf. 
Objects  found  by  the  hundred  among  the  piles  reveal 
the  character  of  the  life  of  the  former  inhabitants. 
They  ate  animals  killed  in  the  chase — the  deer,  the 
boar,  and  the  elk.     But  they  were  already  acquainted 


THE    ORIGINS    OF   CIVILIZATION  5 

with  such  domestic  animals  as  the  ox,  the  goat,  the 
sheep,  and  the  dog.  They  knew  how  to  till  the  ground, 
to  reap,  and  to  grind  their  grain ;  for  in  the  ruins  of 
their  villages  are  to  be  found  grains  of  wheat  and  even 
fragments  of  bread,  or  rather  unleavend  cakes.  They 
wore  coarse  cloths  of  hemp  and  sewed  them  into  gar- 
ments with  needles  of  bone.  They  made  pottery  but 
were  very  awkward  in  its  manufacture.  Their  vases 
were  poorly  burned,  turned  by  hand,  and  adorned  with 
but  few  lines.  Like  the  cave-men,  they  used  knives 
and  arrows  of  flint ;  but  they  made  their  axes  of  a  very 
hard  stone  which  they  had  learned  to  polish.  This  is 
why  we  call  their  epoch  the  Polished  Stone  Age. 
They  are  much  later  than  the  cave-men,  for  they  know 
neither  the  mammoth  nor  the  rhinoceros,  but  still 
are  acquainted  with  the  elk  and  the  reindeer.^ 

Megalithic  Monuments. — Megalith  is  the  name  given 
to  a  monument  formed  of  enormous  blocks  of  rough 
stone.  Sometimes  the  rock  is  bare,  sometimes  covered 
with  a  mass  of  earth.  The  buried  monument  is  called 
a  Ttimulus  on  account  of  its  resemblance  to  a  hill. 
When  it  is  opened,  one  finds  within  a  chamber  of  rock, 
sometimes  paved  with  flag-stones.  The  monuments 
whose  stone  is  above  ground  are  of  various  sorts. 
The  Dolmen,  or  table  of  rock,  is  formed  of  a  long 
stone  laid  flat  over  other  stones  set  in  the  ground. 
The  Cromlech,  or  stone-circle,  consists  of  massive  rocks 
arranged  in  a  circle.  The  Menhir  is  a  block  of  stone 
standing  on  its  end.  Frequently  several  menhirs  are 
ranged  in  line.     At  Carnac  in  Brittany  four  thousand 

*  According  to  Lubbock  (Prehistoric  Times,  N.  Y.,  1890,  p. 
212)  the  reindeer  was  not  known  to  the  Second  Stone  Age. — Ed. 


6  ANCIENT  CIVILIZATION 

menhirs  in  eleven  rows  are  still  standing.  Probably 
there  were  once  ten  thousand  of  these  in  this  locality. 
Megalithic  monuments  appear  by  hundreds  in  western 
France,  especially  in  Brittany;  almost  every  hill  in 
England  has  them;  the  Orkney  Islands  alone  contain 
more  than  two  thousand.  Denmark  and  North  Ger- 
many are  studded  with  them ;  the  people  of  the  country 
call  the  tumuli  the  tombs  of  the  giants. 

Megalithic  monuments  are  encountered  outside  of 
Europe — in  India,  and  on  the  African  coast.  No  one 
knows  what  people  possessed  the  power  to  quarry  such 
masses  and  then  transport  and  erect  them.  For  a  long 
time  it  was  believed  that  the  people  were  the  ancient 
Gauls,  or  Celts,  whence  the  name  Celtic  Monuments. 
But  why  are  like  remains  found  in  Africa  and  in  India  ? 

When  one  of  these  tumuli  still  intact  is  opened,  one 
always  sees  a  skeleton,  often  several,  either  sitting  or 
reclining;  these  monuments,  therefore,  were  used  as 
tombs.  Arms,  vases,  and  ornaments  are  placed  at  the 
side  of  the  dead.  In  the  oldest  of  these  tombs  the 
weapons  are  axes  of  polished  stone ;  the  ornaments  are 
shells,  pearls,  necklaces  of  bone  or  ivory ;  the  vases  are 
very  simple,  without  handle  or  neck,  decorated  only 
with  lines  or  with  points.  Calcined  bones  of  animals 
lie  about  on  the  ground,  the  relics  of  a  funeral  repast 
laid  in  the  tomb  by  the  friends  of  the  dead.  Amidst 
these  bones  we  no  longer  find  those  of  the  reindeer,  a 
fact  which  proves  that  these  monuments  were  con- 
structed after  the  disappearance  of  this  animal  from 
western  Europe,  and  therefore  at  a  time  subsequent  to 
that  of  the  lake  villages. 


THE   ORIGINS   OF   CIVILIZATION 


THE  AGE  OF  BRONZE 

Bronze  Age. — As  soon  as  men  learned  to  smelt  metals, 
they  preferred  these  to  stone  in  the  manufacture  of 
weapons.  The  metal  first  to  be  used  was  copper,  easier 
to  extract  because  found  free,  and  easier  to  manipu- 
late since  it  is  malleable  without  the  application  of  heat. 
Pure  copper,  however,  was  not  employed,  as  weapons 
made  of  it  were  too  fragile ;  but  a  little  tin  was  mixed 
with  it  to  give  it  more  resistance.  It  is  this  alloy  of 
copper  and  tin  that  we  call  bronze. 

Bronze  Utensils. — Bronze  was  used  in  the  manu- 
facture of  ordinary  tools — knives,  hammers,  saws, 
needles,  fish-hooks;  in  the  fabrication  of  ornaments — 
bracelets,  brooches,  ear-rings;  and  especially  in  the 
making  of  arms — daggers,  lance-points,  axes,  and 
swords.  These  objects  are  found  by  thousands 
throughout  Europe  in  the  mounds,  under  the  more 
recent  dolmens,  in  the  turf-pits  of  Denmark,  and  in 
rock-tombs.  Near  these  objects  of  bronze,  ornaments 
of  gold  are  often  seen  and,  now  and  then,  the  remains 
of  a  woollen  garment.  It  cannot  be  due  to  chance 
that  all  implements  of  bronze,  are  similar  and  all  are 
made  according  to  the  same  alloy.  Doubtless  they 
revert  to  the  same  period  of  time  and  are  anterior  to 
the  coming  of  the  Romans  into  Gaul,  for  they  are 
never  discovered  in  the  midst  of  debris  of  the  Roman 
period.  But  what  men  used  them  ?  What  people  in- 
vented bronze?    Nobody  knows. 


ANCIENT    CIVILIZATION 


THE  IRON  AGE 

Iron. — As  iron  was  harder  to  smelt  and  work  than 
bronze,  it  was  later  that  men  learned  how  to  use  it. 
As  soon  as  it  was  appreciated  that  iron  was  harder 
and  cut  better  than  bronze,  men  preferred  it  in  the 
manufacture  of  arms.  In  Homer's  time  iron  is  still 
a  precious  metal  reserved  for  swords,  bronze  being 
retained  for  other  purposes.  It  is  for  this  reason  that 
many  tombs  contain  confused  remains  of  utensils  of 
bronze  and  weapons  of  iron. 

Iron  Weapons. — These  arms  are  axes,  swords,  dag- 
gers, and  bucklers.  They  are  ordinarily  found  by  the 
side  of  a  skeleton  in  a  coffin  of  stone  or  wood,  for 
warriors  had  their  arms  buried  with  them.  But  they 
are  found  also  scattered  on  ancient  battle-fields  or  lost 
at  the  bottom  of  a  marsh  which  later  became  a  turf-pit. 
There  were  found  in  a  turf-pit  in  Schleswig  in  one 
day  lOO  swords,  500  lances,  30  axes,  460  daggers,  80 
knives,  40  stilettos — and  all  of  iron.  Not  far  from 
there  in  the  bed  of  an  ancient  lake  was  discovered  a 
great  boat  66  feet  long,  fully  equipped  with  axes, 
swords,  lances,  and  knives. 

It  is  impossible  to  enumerate  the  iron  implements 
thus  found.  They  have  not  been  so  well  preserved  as 
the  bronze,  as  iron  is  rapidly  eaten  away  by  rust.  At 
the  first  glance,  therefore,  they  appear  the  older,  but 
in  reality  are  more  recent. 

Epoch  of  the  Iron  Age. — The  inhabitants  of  northern 
Europe  knew  iron  before  the  coming  of  the  Romans, 
the  first  century  before  Christ.     In  an  old  cemetery 


THE    ORIGINS   OF   CIVILIZATION  9 

near  the  salt  mines  of  Hallstadt  in  Austria  they  have 
opened  980  tombs  filled  with  instruments  of  iron  and 
bronze  without  finding  a  single  piece  of  Roman  money. 
But  the  Iron  Age  continued  under  the  Romans.  Al- 
most always  iron  objects  are  found  accompanied  by 
ornaments  of  gold  and  silver,  by  Roman  pottery, 
funeral  urns,  inscriptions,  and  Roman  coins  bearing 
the  effigy  of  the  emperor.  The  warriors  whom  we 
find  lying  near  their  sword  and  their  buckler  lived  for 
the  most  part  in  a  period  quite  close  to  ours,  many 
under  the  ^Merovingians,  some  even  at  the  time  of 
Charlemagne.  The  Iron  Age  is  no  longer  a  pre- 
historic age. 

CONCLUSIONS 

How  the  Four  Ages  are  to  be  Conceived. — The  inhab- 
itants of  one  and  the  same  country  have  successively 
made  use  of  rough  stone,  polished  stone,  bronze,  and 
iron.  But  all  countries  have  not  lived  in  the  same  age 
at  the  same  time.  Iron  was  employed  by  the  Egy^p- 
tians  while  yet  the  Greeks  w^ere  in  their  bronze  age  and 
the  barbarians  of  Denmark  were  using  stone.  The 
conclusion  of  the  polished  stone  age  in  America  came 
only  with  the  arrival  of  Europeans.  In  our  own  time 
the  savages  of  Australia  are  still  in  the  rough  stone  age. 
In  their  settlements  may  be  found  only  implements  of 
bone  and  stone  similar  to  those  used  by  the  cave-men. 
The  four  ages,  therefore,  do  not  mark  periods  in  the 
life  of  humanity,  but  only  epochs  in  the  civilization  of 
each  country. 

Uncertainties. — Prehistoric  archaeology  Is  yet  a  very 
young  science.     We  have  learned  something  of  primi- 


10  ANCIENT  CIVILIZATION 

tive  men  through  certain  remains  preserved  and  dis- 
covered by  chance.  A  recent  accident,  a  trench,  a  land- 
slip, a  drought  may  effect  a  new  discovery  any  day. 
Who  knows  what  is  still  under  ground  ?  The  finds  are 
already  innumerable.  But  these  rarely  tell  us  what 
we  wish  to  know.  How  long  was  each  of  the  four 
ages?  When  did  each  begin  and  end  in  the  various 
parts  of  the  world?  Who  planned  the  caverns,  the 
lake  villages,  the  mounds,  the  dolmens?  When  a 
country  passes  from  polished  stone  to  bronze,  is  it 
the  same  people  changing  implements,  or  is  it' a  new 
people  come  on  the  scene?  When  one  thinks  one  has 
found  the  solution,  a  new  discovery  often  confounds 
the  archaeologists.  It  was  thought  that  the  Celts  orig- 
inated the  dolmens,  but  these  have  been  found  in 
sections  which  could  never  have  been  traversed  by 
Celts. 

What  has  been  determined — Three  conclusions, 
however,  seem  certain: 

I. — Man  has  lived  long  on  the  earth,  familiar  as  he 
was  with  the  mammoth  and  the  cave-bear ;  he  lived  at 
least  as  early  as  the  geological  period  known  as  the 
Quaternary. 

2. — Man  has  emerged  from  the  savage  state  to  civ- 
ilized life;  he  has  gradually  perfected  his  tools  and 
his  ornaments  from  the  awkward  axe  of  flint  and  the 
necklace  of  bears'  teeth  to  iron  swords  and  jewels  of 
gold.     The  roughest  instruments  are  the  oldest. 

3. — Man  has  made  more  and  more  rapid  progress. 
Each  age  has  been  shorter  than  its  predecessor. 


CHAPTER  II 
HISTORY  AND  THE  RECORDS 

HISTORY 

Legends. — The  most  ancient  records  of  people  and 
their  doings  are  transmitted  by  oral  tradition.  They 
are  recited  long  before  they  are  written  down  and  are 
much  mixed  with  fable.  The  Greeks  told  how  their 
heroes  of  the  oldest  times  had  exterminated  monsters, 
fought  with  giants,  and  battled  against  the  gods.  The 
Romans  had  Romulus  nourished  by  a  wolf  and  raised 
to  heaven.  Almost  all  peoples  relate  such  stories  of 
their  infancy.  But  no  confidence  is  to  be  placed  in 
these  legends. 

History. — History  has  its  true  beginning  only  with 
authentic  accounts,  that  is  to  say,  accounts  written  by 
men  who  were  well  informed.  This  moment  is  not 
the  same  with  all  peoples.  The  history  of  Egypt  com- 
mences more  than  3,000  years  before  Christ;  that  of 
the  Greeks  ascends  scarcely  to  800  years  before  Christ ; 
Germany  has  had  a  history  only  since  the  first  century 
of  our  era ;  Russia  dates  back  only  to  the  ninth  century ; 
certain  savage  tribes  even  yet  have  no  history. 

Great  Divisions  of  History. — The  history  of  civiliza- 
tion begins  with  the  oldest  civilized  people  and  con- 
tinues to  the  present  time.  Antiquity  is  the  most 
remote  period.  Modern  Times  the  era  in  which  we  live. 

Ancient  History. — Ancient  History  begins  with  the 


12  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

oldest  known  nations,  the  Egyptians  and  Chaldeans 
(about  3,000  years  before  our  era),  and  surveys  the 
peoples  of  the  Orient,  the  Hindoos,  Persians,  Phoeni- 
cians, Jews,  Greeks,  and  last  of  all  the  Romans.  It 
terminates  about  the  fifth  century  a.d.,  when  the 
Roman  empire  of  the  west  is  extinguished. 

Modern  History — Modern  History  starts  with  the 
end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  with  the  invention  of 
printing,  the  discovery  of  America  and  of  the  Indies, 
the  Renaissance  of  the  sciences  and  arts.  It  concerns 
itself  especially  with  peoples  of  the  West,  of  Spain, 
Italy,  France,  Germany,  Russia,  and  America. 

The  Middle  Age. — Between  Antiquity  and  Modern 
Times  about  ten  centuries  elapse  which  belong  neither 
to  ancient  times  (for  the  civilization  of  Antiquity  has 
perished)  nor  to  modern  (since  modern  civilization 
does  not  yet  exist).  This  period  we  call  the  Middle 
As:e. 


-£5' 


SOURCES  OF  INFORMATION  FOR  THE 
HISTORY  OF  ANCIENT  PEOPLES 

The  Sources. — The  Assyrians,  Greeks,  and  Romans 
are  no  longer  with  us ;  all  the  peoples  of  antiquity  have 
passed  away.  To  know  their  religion,  their  customs, 
and  arts  we  have  to  seek  for  instruction  in  the  remains 
they  have  left  us.  These  are  books,  monuments,  in- 
scriptions, and  languages,  and  these  are  our  means 
for  the  study  of  ancient  civilizations.  We  term  these 
sources  because  we  draw  our  knowledge  from  them. 
Ancient  History  flows  from  these  sources. 

Books. — Ancient  peoples  have  left  written  records 


HISTORY    AND    THE    RECORDS  13 

behind  them.  Some  of  these  peoples  had  sacred  books 
— for  example,  the  Hindoos,  the  Persians,  and  the 
Jews;  the  Greeks  and  Romans  have  handed  down  to 
us  histories,  poems,  speeches,  philosophical  treatises. 
But  books  are  very  far  from  furnishing  all  the  informa- 
tion that  we  require.  We  do  not  possess  a  single 
Assyrian  or  Phoenician  book.  Other  peoples  have 
transmitted  very  few  books  to  us.  The  ancients  wrote 
less  than  we,  and  so  they  had  a  smaller  literature  to 
leave  behind  them ;  and  as  it  was  necessary  to  tran- 
scribe all  of  this  by  hand,  there  was  but  a  small  num- 
ber of  copies  of  books.  Further,  most  of  these  man- 
uscripts have  been  destroyed  or  have  been  lost,  and 
those  which  remain  to  us  are  difficult  to  read.  The 
art  of  deciphering  them  is  called  Palaeography. 

The  Monuments. — Ancient  peoples,  like  ourselves, 
built  monuments  of  different  sorts :  palaces  for  their 
kings,  tombs  for  the  dead,  fortresses,  bridges,  aque- 
ducts, triumphal  arches.  Of  these  monuments  many 
have  fallen  into  ruin,  have  been  razed,  shattered  by  the 
enemy  or  by  the  people  themselves.  But  some  of 
them  survive,  either  because  there  was  no  desire  to 
destroy  them,  or  because  men  could  not.  They  still 
stand  in  ruins  like  the  old  castles,  for  repairs  are  no 
longer  made;  but  enough  is  preserved  to  enable  us  to 
comprehend  their  former  condition.  Some  of  them 
are  still  above  ground,  like  the  pyramids,  the  temples 
of  Thebes  and  of  the  island  of  Philse,  the  palace  of 
Persepolis  in  Persia,  the  Parthenon  in  Greece,  the 
Colosseum  in  Rome,  and  the  Maison  Carree  and  Pont 
du  Gard  in  France.  Like  any  modern  monument,  these 
are  visible  to  the  traveller.    But  the  majority  of  these 


14  ANCIENT    CIVILIZATION 

monuments  have  been  recovered  from  the  earth,  from 
sand,  from  river  deposits,  and  from  debris.  One 
must  disengage  them  from  this  thick  covering,  and 
excavate  the  soil,  often  to  a  great  depth.  Assyrian 
palaces  may  be  reached  only  by  cutting  into  the  hills. 
A  trench  of  forty  feet  is  necessary  to  penetrate  to  the 
tombs  of  the  kings  of  Mycenae.  Time  is  not  the  only 
agency  for  covering  these  ruins;  men  have  aided  it. 
When  the  ancients  wished  to  build,  they  did  not,  as  we 
do,  take  the  trouble  to  level  off  the  space,  nor  to  clear 
the  site.  Instead  of  removing  the  debris,  they  heaped 
it  together  and  built  above  it.  The  new  edifice  in  turn 
fell  into  ruins  and  its  debris  was  added  to  that  of  more 
remote  time;  thus  there  were  formed  several  strata 
of  remains.  When  Schliemann  excavated  the  site  of 
Troy,  he  had  passed  through  five  beds  of  debris ;  these 
were  five  ruined  villages  one  above  another,  the  oldest 
at  a  depth  of  fifty  feet. 

By  accident  one  town  has  been  preserved  to  us  in  its 
entirety.  In  79  a.d.  the  volcano  of  Vesuvius  belched 
forth  a  torrent  of  liquid  lava  and  a  rain  of  ashes,  and 
two  Roman  cities  were  suddenly  buried,  Herculaneum 
by  lava,  and  Pompeii  by  ashes;  the  lava  burnt  the 
objects  it  touched,  while  the  ashes  enveloped  them,  pre- 
serving them  from  the  air  and  keeping  them  intact. 
As  we  remove  the  ashes,  Pompeii  reappears  to  us  just 
as  it  was  eighteen  centuries  ago.  One  still  sees  the 
wheel-ruts  in  the  pavement,  the  designs  traced  on  the 
walls  with  charcoal;  in  the  houses,  the  pictures,  the 
utensils,  the  furniture,  even  the  bread,  the  nuts,  and 
olives,  and  here  and  there  the  skeleton  of  an  inhabitant 
surprised  by  the  catastrophe.     Monuments  teach  us 


HISTORY   AND   THE   RECORDS  15 

much  about  the  ancient  peoples.  The  science  of  mon- 
uments is  called  Archaeology. 

Inscriptions. — By  inscriptions  one  means  all  writings 
other  than  books.  Inscriptions  are  for  the  most  part 
cut  in  stone,  but  some  are  on  plates  of  bronze.  At 
Pompeii  they  have  been  found  traced  on  the  walls  in 
colors  or  with  charcoal.  Some  have  the  character  of 
commemorative  inscriptions  just  as  these  are  now  at- 
tached to  our  statues  and  edifices;  thus  in  the  monu- 
ment of  Ancyra  the  emperor  Augustus  publishes  the 
story  of  his  life. 

The  greatest  number  of  inscriptions  are  epitaphs 
graven  on  tombs.  Certain  others  fill  the  function  of 
our  placards,  containing,  as  they  do,  a  law  or  a  regula- 
tion that  was  to  be  made  public.  The  science  of  in- 
scriptions is  called  Epigraphy. 

Languages. — The  languages  also  which  ancient  peo- 
ples spoke  throw  light  on  their  history.  Comparing 
the  words  of  two  different  languages,  we  perceive  that 
the  two  have  a  common  origin — an  evidence  that  the 
peoples  who  spoke  them  were  descended  from  the  same 
stock.     The  science  of  languages  is  called  Linguistics. 

Lacunae. — It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  books,  mon- 
uments, inscriptions,  and  languages  are  sufficient  to 
give  complete  knowledge  of  the  history  of  antiquity. 
They  present  many  details  which  we  could  well  afford 
to  lose,  but  often  what  we  care  most  to  know  escapes 
us.  Scholars  continue  to  dig  and  to  decipher;  each 
year  new  discoveries  of  inscriptions  and  monuments 
are  made;  but  there  remain  still  many  gaps  in  our 
knowledge  and  probably  some  of  these  will  always 
exist. 


16  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 


RACES   AND    PEOPLES 

Anthropology. — The  men  who  people  the  earth  do 
not  possess  exact  resemblances,  some  differing  from 
others  in  stature,  the  form  of  the  limbs  and  the  head, 
the  features  of  the  face,  the  color  of  the  hair  and  eyes. 
Other  differences  are  found  in  language,  intelligence, 
and  sentiments.  These  variations  permit  us  to  sep- 
arate the  inhabitants  of  the  earth  into  several  groups 
which  we  call  races.  A  race  is  the  aggregate  of  those 
men  who  resemble  one  another  and  are  distinguished 
from  all  others.  The  common  traits  of  a  race — its 
characteristics — constitute  the  type  of  the  race.  For 
example,  the  type  of  the  negro  race  is  marked  by  black 
skin,  frizzly  hair,  white  teeth,  flat  nose,  projecting  lips, 
and  prominent  jaw.  That  part  of  Anthropology 
which  concerns  itself  with  races  and  their  sub-divisions 
is  called  Ethnology.^  This  science  is  yet  in  its  early 
development  on  account  of  its  complete  novelty,  and  is 
very  complex  since  types  of  men  are  very  numerous 
and  often  very  difficult  to  differentiate. 

The  Races. — The  principal  races  are : 

I. — The  White  race,  which  inhabits  Europe,  the 
north  of  Africa,  and  western  Asia. 

2. — The  Yellow  race  in  eastern  Asia  to  which  be- 
long the  Chinese,  the  Mongols,  Turks,  and  Hungar- 
ians, who  invaded  Europe  as  conquerors.  They  have 
yellow  skin,  small  regular  eyes,  prominent  cheek-bones, 
and  thin  beard. 

1  Ethnography  is  the  study  of  races  from  the  point  of  view  of 
their  objects  and  customs. 


HISTORY   AND   THE   RECORDS  17 

3. — The  Black  race,  in  central  Africa.  These  are 
the  Negroes,  of  black  skin,  flat  nose,  woolly  hair. 

4. — The  Red  race,  in  /America.  These  are  the 
Indians,  with  copper-colored  skin  and  flat  heads. 

Civilized  Peoples. — Almost  all  civilized  peoples  be- 
long to  the  white  race.  The  peoples  of  the  other  races 
have  remained  savage  or  barbarian,  like  the  men  of 
prehistoric  times. ^ 

It  is  within  the  limits  of  Asia  and  Africa  that  the 
first  civilized  peoples  had  their  development — the 
Egyptians  in  the  Nile  valley,  the  Chaldeans  in  the  plain 
of  the  Euphrates.  They  were  peoples  of  sedentary  and 
peaceful  pursuits.  Their  skin  was  dark,  the  hair  short 
and  thick,  the  lips  strong.  Nobody  knows  their  origin 
with  exactness  and  scholars  are  not  agreed  on  the  name 
to  give  them  (some  terming  them  Cushites,  others 
Hamites).  Later,  between  the  twentieth  and  twenty- 
fifth  centuries  B.C.  came  bands  of  martial  shepherds 
who  had  spread  over  all  Europe  and  the  west  of  Asia 
— the  Aryans  and  the  Semites. 

The  Aryans  and  the  Semites. — There  is  no  clearly 
marked  external  difference  between  the  Aryans  and 
the  Semites.  Both  are  of  the  white  race,  having  the 
oval  face,  regular  features,  clear  skin,  abundant  hair, 
large  eyes,  thin  lips,  and  straight  nose.  Both  peoples 
were  originally  nomad  shepherds,  fond  of  war.  We 
do  not  know  whence  they  came,  nor  is  there  agreement 
whether  the  Aryans  came  from  the  mountain  region 

^  The  Chinese  only  of  the  yellow  race  have  elaborated  among 
themselves  an  industry,  a  regular  government,  a  polite  society. 
But  placed  at  the  extremity  of  Asia  they  have  had  no  influence 
on  other  civilized  peoples,  [The  Japanese  should  be  included. 
— Ed.] 


18  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

in  the  northwest  of  the  Himalayas  or  from  the  plains 
of  Russia.  What  distinguishes  them  is  their  spiritual 
bent  and  especially  their  language,  sometimes  also  their 
religion.  Scholars  by  common  consent  call  those  peo- 
ples Aryan  who  speak  an  Aryan  language:  in  Asia, 
the  Hindoos  and  Persians;  in  Europe,  the  Greeks, 
Italians,  Spaniards,  Germans,  Scandinavians,  Slavs 
(Russians,  Poles,  Serfs),  and  Celts. ^ 

Similarly,  we  call  Semites  those  peoples  who  speak 
a  Semitic  language :  Arabs,  Jews  and  Syrians.  But  a 
people  may  speak  an  Aryan  or  a  Semitic  language  and 
yet  not  be  of  Aryan  or  Semitic  race;  a  negro  may 
speak  English  without  being  of  English  stock.  Many 
of  the  Europeans  whom  we  classify  among  the  Aryans 
are  perhaps  the  descendants  of  an  ancient  race  con- 
quered by  the  Aryans  and  who  have  adopted  their 
language,  just  as  the  Egyptians  received  the  language 
of  the  Arabs,  their  conquerors. 

These  two  names  (Aryan  and  Semite),  then,  signify 
today  rather  two  groups  of  peoples  than  two  distinct 
races.  But  even  if  we  use  the  terms  in  this  sense, 
one  may  say  that  all  the  greater  peoples  of  the  world 
have  been  Semites  or  Aryans.  The  Semitic  family 
included  the  Phoenicians,  the  people  of  commerce ;  the 
Jews,  the  people  of  religion ;  the  Arabs,  the  people  of 
war.  The  Aryans,  some  finding  their  homes  in  India, 
others  in  Europe,  have  produced  the  nations  which 
have  been,  and  still  are,  foremost  in  the  world — in 
antiquity,  the  Hindoos,  a  people  of  great  philosophical 
and  religious  ideas ;  the  Greeks,  creators  of  art  and  of 

iThe  English  and  French  are  mixtures  of  Celtic  and  German 
blood. 


HISTORY   AND   THE   RECORDS  19 

science;  the  Persians  and  Romans,  the  founders,  the 
former  in  the  East,  the  latter  in  the  West,  of  the  great- 
est empires  of  antiquity;  in  modern  times,  the  Ital- 
ians, French,  Germans,  Dutch,  Russians,  English  and 
Americans. 

The  history  of  civilization  begins  with  the  Egyp- 
tians and  the  Chaldeans ;  but  from  the  fifteenth  century 
before  our  era,  history  concerns  itself  only  with  the 
Aryan  and  Semitic  peoples. 


CHAPTER  III 
ANCIENT  HISTORY  OF  THE  EAST 

THE  EGYPTIANS 

The  Land  of  Egypt. — Egypt  is  only  the  valley  of  the 
Nile,  a  narrow  strip  of  fertile  soil  stretching  along 
both  banks  of  the  stream  and  shut  in  by  mountains  on 
either  sid^,  somewhat  over  700^  miles  in  length  and 
15  in  width.  Where  the  hills  fall  away,  the  Delta  be- 
gins, a  vast  plain  cut  by  the  arms  of  the  Nile  and  by 
canals.  As  Herodotus  says,  Egypt  is  wholly  the  gift 
of  the  Nile. 

The  Nile. — Every  year  at  the  summer  solstice  the 
Nile,  swollen  by  the  melted  snows  of  Abyssinia,  over- 
flows the  parched  soil  of  Egypt.  It  rises  to  a  height 
of  twenty-six  or  twenty-seven  feet,  sometimes  even  to 
thirty-three  feet.  The  whole  country  becomes  a  lake 
from  which  the  villages,  built  on  eminences,  emerge 
like  little  islands.  The  water  recedes  in  September; 
by  December  it  has  returned  to  its  proper  channel. 
Everywhere  has  been  left  a  fertile,  alluvial  bed  which 
serves  the  purpose  of  fertilization.  On  the  softened 
earth  the  peasant  sows  his  crop  with  almost  no  labor. 
The  Nile,  then,  brings  both  water  and  soil  to  Egypt ;  if 
the  river  should  fail,  Egypt  would  revert,  like  the  land 

*  Following  the  curves  of  the  stream. — Ed. 

^  In  some  localities,  e.g.  Thebes,  the  flood  is  even  higher. — Ed. 

20 


ANCIENT    HISTORY    OF   THE    EAST  21 

on  either  side  of  it,  to  a  desert  of  sterile  sand  where 
the  rain  never  falls.  The  Egyptians  are  conscious  of 
their  debt  to  their  stream.  A  song  in  its  honor  runs 
as  follows :  "Greeting  to  thee,  O  Nile,  who  hast  re- 
vealed thyself  throughout  the  land,  who  comest  in 
peace  to  give  life  to  Egypt.  Does  it  rise?  The  land 
is  filled  with  joy,  every  heart  exults,  every  being  re- 
ceives its  food,  every  mouth  is  full.  It  brings  bounties 
that  are  full  of  delight,  it  creates  all  good  things,  it 
makes  the  grass  to  spring  up  for  the  beasts." 

Fertility  of  the  Country. — Egypt  is  truly  an  oasis  in 
the  midst  of  the  desert  of  Africa.  It  produces  in 
abundance  wheat,  beans,  lentils,  and  all  leguminous 
foods ;  palms  rear  themselves  in  forests.  On  the  pas- 
tures irrigated  by  the  Nile  graze  herds  of  cattle  and 
goats,  and  flocks  of  geese.  With  a  territory  hardly 
equal  to  that  of  Belgium,  Egypt  still  supports  5,500,- 
000  inhabitants.  No  country  in  Europe  is  so  thickly 
populated,  and  Egypt  in  antiquity  was  more  densely 
thronged  than  it  is  today. 

The    Accounts    of    Herodotus Egypt    was    better 

known  to  the  Greeks  than  the  rest  of  the  Orient. 
Herodotus  had  visited  it  in  the  fifth  century  B.C.  He 
describes  in  his  History  the  inundations  of  the  Nile, 
the  manners,  costume,  and  religion  of  the  people ; 
he  recounts  events  of  their  history  and  tales  which  his 
guides  had  told  him.  Diodorus  and  Strabo  also  speak 
of  Egypt.  But  all  had  seen  the  country  in  its  de- 
cadence and  had  no  knowledge  of  the  ancient  Egyp- 
tians. 

Champollion. — The    French    expedition    to    Egypt 
(1798- 1 801)   opened  the  country  to  scholars.     They 


22  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

made  a  close  examination  of  the  Pyramids  and  ruins 
of  Thebes,  and  collected  drawings  and  inscriptions. 
But  no  one  could  decipher  the  hieroglyphs,  the  Egyp- 
tian writing.  It  was  an  erroneous  impression  that 
every  sign  in  this  writing  must  each  represent  a  word. 
In  1 82 1  a  French  scholar,  Champollion,  experimented 
with  another  system.  An  official  had  reported  that 
there  was  an  inscription  at  Rosetta  in  three  forms  of 
writing — parallel  with  the  hieroglyphs  was  a  transla- 
tion in  Greek.  The  name  of  King  Ptolemy,  was  sur- 
rounded with  a  cartouche.^  Champollion  succeeded 
in  finding  in  this  name  the  letters  P,  T,  O,  L,  M,  I,  S. 
Comparing  these  with  other  names  of  kings  similarly 
enclosed,  he  found  the  whole  alphabet.  He  then  read 
the  hieroglyphs  and  found  that  they  were  written  in 
a  language  like  the  Coptic,  the  language  spoken  in 
Egypt  at  the  time  of  the  Romans,  and  which  was 
already  known  to  scholars. 

Egyptologists. — Since  Champollion,  many  scholars 
have  travelled  over  Egypt  and  have  ransacked  it 
thoroughly.  We  call  these  students  Egyptologists, 
and  they  are  to  be  found  in  every  country  of  Eu- 
rope. A  French  Egyptologist,  Marietta  (1821- 
1881),  made  some  excavations  for  the  Viceroy  of 
Egypt  and  created  the  museum  of  Boulak.  France 
has  established  in  Cairo  a  school  of  Egyptology,  di- 
rected by  Maspero. 

Discoveries. — Not  every  country  yields  such  rich 
discoveries  as  does  Egypt.  The  Egyptians  constructed 
their  tombs  like  houses,  and  laid  in  them  objects  of 
every  kind  for  the  use  of  the  dead — furniture,  gar- 

*  An  enclosing  case. 


ANCIENT    HISTORY    OF    THE    EAST  23 

ments,  arms,  and  edibles.  The  whole  country  was 
filled  with  tombs  similarly  furnished.  Under  this 
extraordinarily  dry  climate  everything  has  been  pre- 
served; objects  come  to  light  intact  after  a  burial  of 
4,000  or  5,000  years.  No  people  of  antiquity  have  left 
so  many  traces  of  themselves  as  the  Egyptians ;  none  is 
better  known  to  us. 


THE    EGYPTIAN    EMPIRE 

Antiquity  of  the  Egyptian  People. — An  Egyptian 
priest  said  to  Herodotus,  "You  Greeks  are  only 
children."  The  Egyptians  considered  themselves  the 
oldest  people  of  the  world.  Down  to  the  Persian 
conquest  (520^  B.C.)  there  were  twenty-six  dynasties 
of  kings.  The  first  ran  back  4,000  years,-  and  during 
these  forty  centuries  Egypt  had  been  an  empire.  The 
capital  down  to  the  tenth  dynasty  (the  period  of  the 
Old  Empire)  was  at  ^Memphis  in  Lower  Eg}^pt,  later, 
in  the  New  Empire,  at  Thebes  in  Upper  Egypt. 

Memphis  and  the  Pyramids. — Memphis,  built  by  the 
first  king  of  Egypt,  was  protected  by  an  enormous 
dike.  The  village  has  existed  for  more  than  five 
thousand  years;  but  since  the  thirteenth  century  the 
inhabitants  have  taken  the  stones  of  its  ruins  to  build 
the  houses  of  Cairo;  what  these  people  left  the  Nile 
recaptured.  The  Pyramids,  not  far  from  Memphis, 
are  contemporaneous  with  the  old  empire;  they  are 

^  525  B.C. — Ed. 

'  The  chronology  of  early  Egyptian  history  is  uncertain. 
CiviHzation  existed  in  this  land  much  eadier  than  was  formerly 
supposed. — Ed. 


24  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

the  tombs  of  three  kings  of  the  fourth  dynasty.  The 
greatest  of  the  pyramids,  480  feet  high,  required  the 
labor  of  100,000  men  for  thirty  years. ^  To  raise  the 
stones  for  it  they  buih  gradually  ascending  platforms 
which  were  removed  when  the  structure  was  com- 
pleted. 

Egyptian  Civilization. — The  statues,  paintings,  and 
instruments  which  are  taken  from  the  tombs  of  this 
epoch  give  evidence  of  an  already  civilized  people. 
When  all  the  other  eminent  nations  of  antiquity — the 
Hindoos,  Persians,  Jews,  Greeks,  Romans — were  still 
in  a  savage  state,  3,500  years  before  our  era,  the  Egyp- 
tians had  known  for  a  long  time  how  to  cultivate 
the  soil,  to  weave  cloths,  to  work  metals,  to  paint, 
sculpture,  and  to  write;  they  had  an  organized  re- 
ligion, a  king,  and  an  administration. 

Thebes. — At  the  eleventh  dynasty  Thebes  succeeds 
Memphis  as  capital.  The  ruins  of  Thel^es  are  still 
standing.  They  are  marvellous,  extending  as  they  do 
on  both  banks  of  the  Nile,  with  a  circuit  of  about  seven 
miles.  On  the  left  bank  there  is  a  series  of  palaces 
and  temples  which  lead  to  vast  cemeteries.  On  the 
right  bank  two  villages,  Luxor  and  Karnak,  distant 
a  half-hour  one  from  the  other,  are  built  in  the  midst 
of  the  ruins.  They  are  united  by  a  double  row  of 
sphinxes,  which  must  have  once  included  more  than 
1,000  of  these  monuments.  Among  these  temples  in 
ruins  the  greatest  was  the  temple  of  Ammon  at  Karnak. 
It  was  surrounded  by  a  wall  of  over  one  and  one-third 
miles  in  length ;  the  famous  Hall  of  Columns,  the  great- 

>  According  to  Petrie  ("  History  of  Egypt,"  New  York,  1895, 1., 
40)  twenty  years  were  consumed. — Ed. 


ANCIENT    HISTORY   OF   THE    EAST  25 

est  in  the  world,  had  a  length  of  334  feet,  a  width  of 
174  feet,^  and  was  supported  by  134  columns;  twelve 
of  these  are  over  65  feet  high.  Thebes  was  for  1,500 
years  the  capital  and  sacred  city,  the  residence  of  kings 
and  the  dwelling-place  of  the  priests. 

The  Pharaoh.— The  king  of  Egypt,  called  Pharaoh, 
was  esteemed  as  the  son  of  the  Sun-god  and  his  in- 
carnation on  earth ;  divinity  was  ascribed  to  him  also. 
We  may  see  in  a  picture  King  Rameses  II  standing  in 
adoration  before  the  divine  Rameses  who  is  sitting  be- 
tween two  gods.  The  king  as  man  adores  himself  as 
god.  Being  god,  the  Pharaoh  has  absolute  power  over 
men ;  as  master,  he  gives  his  orders  to  his  great  nobles 
at  court,  to  his  warriors,  to  all  his  subjects.  But  the 
priests,  though  adoring  him,  surround  and  watch  him ; 
their  head,  the  high  priest  of  the  god  Ammon,  at  last 
becomes  more  powerful  than  the  king ;  he  often  governs 
under  the  name  of  the  king  and  in  his  stead. 

The  Subjects  of  Pharaoh — The  king,  the  priests,  the 
warriors,  the  nobles,  are  proprietors  of  all  Egypt;  all 
the  other  people  are  simply  their  peasants  who  cultivate 
the  land  for  them.  Scribes  in  the  service  of  the  king 
watch  them  and  collect  the  farm-dues,  often  with 
blows  of  the  staff.  One  of  these  functionaries  writes 
as  follows  to  a  friend,  "Have  you  ever  pictured  to 
yourself  the  existence  of  the  peasant  who  tills  the  soil. 
The  tax-collector  is  on  the  platform  busily  seizing  the 
tithe  of  the  harvest.  He  has  his  men  with  him  armed 
with  staves,  his  negroes  provided  with  strips  of  palm. 
All  cry,  *Come,  give  us  grain.'     If  the  peasant  hasn't 

1  Perrot  and  Chipiez  ("History  of  Ancient   Egyptian   Art," 
London.  1883,  i-»  3^5)  give  340  feet  by  170. — Ed. 


26  ANCIENT    CIVILIZATION 

it,  they  throw  him  full  length  on  the  earth,  bind 
him,  draw  him  to  the  canal,  and  hurl  him  in  head 
foremost." 

Despotism. — The  Egyptian  people  has  always  been, 
and  still  is,  gay,  careless,  gentle,  docile  as  an  infant, 
always  ready  to  submit  to  tyranny.  In  this  country 
the  cudgel  was  the  instrument  of  education  and  of  gov- 
ernment. "The  young  man,"  said  the  scribes,  "has  a 
back  to  be  beaten ;  he  hears  when  he  is  struck."  "One 
day,"  says  a  French  traveller,  "finding  myself  before 
the  ruins  of  Thebes,  I  exclaimed,  'But  how  did  they  do 
all  this?'  My  guide  burst  out  laughing,  touched  me 
on  the  arm  and,  showing  me  a  palm,  said  to  me,  'Here 
is  what  they  used  to  accomplish  all  this.  You  know, 
sir,  with  100,000  branches  of  palms  split  on  the  backs 
of  those  who  always  have  their  shoulders  bare,  you  can 
build  many  a  palace  and  some  temples  to  boot." 

Isolation  of  the  Egyptians — The  Egyptians  moved 
but  little  beyond  their  borders.  As  the  sea  inspired 
them  with  terror,  they  had  no  commerce  and  did  not 
trade  with  other  peoples.  They  were  not  at  all  a  mil- 
itary nation.  Their  kings,  it  is  true,  often  went  on 
expeditions  at  the  head  of  mercenaries  either  against 
the  negroes  of  Ethiopia  or  against  the  tribes  of  Syria. 
They  gained  victories  which  they  had  painted  on  the 
walls  of  their  palaces,  they  brought  back  troops  of  cap- 
tives whom  they  used  in  building  monuments;  but 
they  never  made  great  conquests.  Foreigners  came 
more  to  Egypt  than  Egyptians  went  abroad. 

Religion  of  the  Egyptians. — "The  Egyptians,"  said 
Herodotus,  "are  the  most  religious  of  all  men."  We 
do  not  know  any  people  so  devout;  almost  all  their 


ANCIENT    HISTORY    OF    THE    EAST  27 

paintings  represent  men  in  prayer  before  a  god ;  almost 
all  their  manuscripts  are  religious  books. 

Egyptian  Gods. — The  principal  deity  is  a  Sun-god, 
creator,  beneficent,  "who  knows  all  things,  who  exists 
from  the  beginning."  This  god  has  a  divine  wife  and 
son.  All  the  Egyptians  adored  this  trinity ;  but  not  all 
gave  it  the  same  name.  Each  region  gave  a  different 
name  to  these  three  gods.  At  Memphis  they  called  the 
father  Phtah,  the  mother  Sekhet,  the  son  Imouthes ;  at 
Abydos  they  called  them  Osiris,  Isis,  and  Horus;  at 
Thebes,  Ammon,  Mouth,  and  Chons.  Then,  too,  the 
people  of  one  province  adopted  the  gods  of  other 
provinces.  Further,  they  made  other  gods  emanate 
from  each  god  of  the  trinity.  Thus  the  number  of 
gods  was  increased  and  religion  was  complicated. 

Osiris. — These  gods  have  their  history ;  it  is  that  of 
the  sun ;  for  the  sun  appeared  to  the  Egyptians,  as  to 
most  of  the  primitive  peoples,  the  mightiest  of  beings, 
and  consequently  a  god.  Osiris,  the  sun,  is  slain  by 
Set,  god  of  the  night ;  Isis,  the  moon,  his  wife,  bewails 
and  buries  him ;  Horus,  his  son,  the  rising  sun,  avenges 
him  by  killing  his  murderer. 

Ammon-ra. — Ammon-ra,  god  of  Thebes,  is  repre- 
sented as  traversing  heaven  each  day  in  a  bark  ("the 
good  bark  of  millions  of  years")  ;  the  shades  of  the 
dead  propel  it  with  long  oars;  the  god  stands  at  the 
prow  to  strike  the  enemy  with  his  lance.  The  hymn 
which  they  chanted  in  his  honor  is  as  follows :  "Hom- 
age to  thee;  thou  watchest  favoringly,  thou  watchest 

truly,  O  master  of  the  two  horizons Thou 

treadest  the  heavens  on  high,  thine  enemies  are  laid 
low.     The  heaven  is  glad,  the  earth  is  joyful,  the  gods 


28  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

unite  in  festal  cheer  to  render  glory  to  Ra  when  they 
see  him  rising  in  his  bark  after  he  has  overwhelmed  his 
enemies.  O  Ra,  give  abounding  life  to  Pharaoh,  be- 
stow bread  for  his  hunger  (belly),  water  for  his  throat, 
perfumes  for  his  hair." 

Animal-Headed  Gods — The  Egyptians  often  repre- 
sented their  gods  with  human  form,  but  more  fre- 
quently under  the  form  of  a  beast.  Each  god  has  his 
animal :  Phtah  incarnates  himself  in  the  beetle,  Horus 
in  the  hawk,  Osiris  in  the  bull.  The  two  figures  often 
unite  in  a  man  with  the  head  of  an  animal  or  an  animal 
with  the  head  of  a  man.  Every  god  may  be  figured  in 
four  forms :  Horus,  for  example,  as  a  man,  a  hawk,  as 
man  with  the  head  of  a  hawk,  as  a  hawk  with  the  head 
of  a  man. 

Sacred  Animals —  What  did  the  Egyptians  wish  to 
designate  by  this  symbol  ?  One  hardly  knows.  They, 
themselves,  came  to  regard  as  sacred  the  animals  which 
served  to  represent  the  gods  to  them :  the  bull,  the 
beetle,  the  ibis,  the  hawk,  the  cat,  the  crocodile.  They 
cared  for  them  and  protected  them.  A  century  before 
the  Christian  era  a  Roman  citizen  killed  a  cat  at 
Alexandria;  the  people  rose  in  riot,  seized  him,  and, 
notwithstanding  the  entreaties  of  the  king,  murdered 
him,  although  at  the  same  time  they  had  great  fear 
of  the  Romans.  There  was  in  each  temple  a  sacred 
animal  which  was  adored.  The  traveller  Strabo  re- 
cords a  visit  to  a  sacred  crocodile  of  Thebes:  "The 
beast,"  said  he,  "lay  on  the  edge  of  a  pond,  the  priests 
drew  near,  two  of  them  opened  his  mouth,  a  third 
thrust  in  cakes,  grilled  fish,  and  a  drink  made  with 
meal." 


ANCIENT    HISTORY    OF   THE    EAST  29 

The  Bull  Apis. — Of  these  animal  gods  the  most  ven- 
erated was  the  bnll  Apis.  It  represented  at  once 
Osiris  and  Phtah  and  lived  at  Memphis  in  a  chapel 
served  by  the  priests.  After  its  death  it  became  an 
Osiris  (Osar-hapi),  it  was  embalmed,  and  its  mummy 
deposited  in  a  vault.  The  sepulchres  of  the  "Osar- 
hapi"  constituted  a  gigantic  monument,  the  Serapeum, 
discovered  in  1851  by  Mariette. 

Cult  of  the  Dead. — The  Egyptians  adored  also  the 
spirits  of  the  dead.  They  seem  to  have  believed  at 
first  that  every  man  had  a  ^'double"  (Ka),  and  that 
when  the  man  was  dead  his  double  still  survived. 
Many  savage  peoples  believe  this  to  this  day.  The 
Egyptian  tomb  in  the  time  of  the  Old  Empire  was 
termed  "House  of  the  Double."  It  was  a  low  room 
arranged  like  a  chamber,  where  for  the  service  of  the 
double  there  were  placed  all  that  he  required,  chairs, 
tables,  beds,  chests,  linen,  closets,  garments,  toilet  uten- 
sils, weapons,  sometimes  a  w^ar-chariot ;  for  the  enter- 
tainment of  the  double,  statues,  paintings,  books;  for 
his  sustenance,  grain  and  foods.  And  then  they  set 
there  a  double  of  the  dead  in  the  form  of  a  statue  in 
w^ood  or  stone  carved  in  his  likeness.  At  last  the  open- 
ing to  the  vault  was  sealed;  the  double  was  enclosed, 
but  the  living  still  provided  for  him.  They  brought 
him  foods  or  they  might  beseech  a  god  that  he  supply 
them  to  the  spirit,  as  in  this  inscription,  "An  offering 
to  Osiris  that  he  may  confer  on  the  Ka  of  the  deceased 
N.  bread,  drink,  'meat,  geese,  milk,  wine,  beer,  cloth- 
ing, perfumes — all  good  things  and  pure  on  which  the 
god  (i.e.  the  Ka)  subsists. 

Judgment  of  the  Soul — Later,  originating  with  the 


30  ANCIENT    CIVILIZATION 

eleventh  dynasty,  the  Egyptians  beheved  that  the  soul 
flew  away  from  the  body  and  sought  Osiris  under  the 
earth,  the  realm  into  which  the  sun  seemed  every  day 
to  sink.  There  Osiris  sits  on  his  tribunal,  surrounded 
by  forty-two  judges;  the  soul  appears  before  these  to 
give  account  of  his  past  life.  His  actions  are  weighed 
in  the  balance  of  truth,  his  ''heart"  is  called  to  witness. 
"O  heart,"  cries  the  dead,  ''O  heart,  the  issue  of  my 
mother,  my  heart  when  I  was  on  earth,  offer  not  thy- 
self as  witness,  charge  me  not  before  the  great  god." 
The  soul  found  on  examination  to  be  bad  is  tormented 
for  centuries  and  at  last  annihilated.  The  good  soul 
springs  up  across  the  firmament ;  after  many  tests  it 
rejoins  the  company  of  the  gods  and  is  absorbed  into 
them. 

Mummies. — During  this  pilgrimage  the  soul  may 
wish  to  re-enter  the  body  to  rest  there.  The  body 
must  therefore  be  kept  intact,  and  so  the  Egyptians 
learned  to  embalm  it.  The  corpse  was  filled  with 
spices,  drenched  in  a  bath  of  natron,  wound  with 
bandages  and  thus  transformed  into  a  mummy.  The 
mummy  encased  in  a  coffin  of  wood  or  plaster  was 
laid  in  the  tomb  with  every  provision  necessary  to  its 
life. 

Book  of  the  Dead — A  book  was  deposited  with  the 
mummy,  the  Book  of  the  Dead,  which  explains  what 
the  soul  ought  to  say  in  the  other  world  when  it  makes 
its  defence  before  the  tribunal  of  Osiris :  'T  have  never 
committed  fraud;  ...  I  have  never  vexed  the 
widow;  ...  I  have  never  committed  any  forbid- 
den act;  ...  I  have  never  been  an  idler;  ...  I 
have  never  taken  the  slave  from  his  master;  ...     I 


ANCIENT    HISTORY   OF   THE    EAST  31 

never  stole  the  bread  from  the  temples ;  .  .  .  I  never 
removed  the  provisions  or  the  bandages  of  the  dead; 
I  never  altered  the  grain  measure;  ...  I  never 
hunted  sacred  beasts ;  I  never  caught  sacred  fish ;  .  .  . 
I  am  pure;  ...  I  have  given  bread  to  the  hungry, 
water  to  the  thirsty,  clothing  to  the  naked ;  I  have  sac- 
rificed to  the  gods,  and  offered  funeral  feasts  to  the 
dead."  Here  we  see  Egyptian  morality:  observance 
of  ceremonies,  respect  for  everything  pertaining  to  the 
gods,  sincerity,  honesty,  and  beneficence. 

THE  ARTS 

Industry. — The  Egyptians  were  the  first  to  practise 
the  arts  necessary  to  a  civilized  people.  Frorru  the 
first  dynasty,  3,000-^  years  B.C.,  paintings  on  the  tombs 
exhibit  men  working,  sowing,  harvesting,  beating  and 
winnowing  grain ;  we  have  representations  of  herds  of 
cattle,  sheep,  geese,  swine;  of  persons  richly  clothed, 
processions,  feasts  where  the  harp  is  played — almost 
the  same  life  that  we  behold  3,000  years  later.  As  early 
as  this  time  the  Egyptians  knew  how  to  manipulate 
gold,  silver,  bronze;  to  manufacture  arms  and  jewels, 
glass,  pottery,  and  enamel ;  they  wove  garments  of 
linen  and  wool,  and  cloths,  transparent  or  embroidered 
with  gold. 

Architecture. — They    were    the    oldest    artists    of^ 
the    world.     They  constructed  enormous  monuments 
which  appear  to  be  eternal,  for  down  to  the  present, 
time  has  not  been  able  to  destroy  them.     They  never 
built,  as  we  do,  for  the  living,  but  for  the  gods  and 

*  Probably  much  earlier  than  this. — Ed. 


32  ANCIENT    CIVILIZATION 

for  the  dead,  i.e.,  temples  and  tombs.  Only  a  slight 
amount  of  debris  is  left  of  their  houses,  and  even  the 
palaces  of  their  kings  in  comparison  with  the  tombs 
appear,  in  the  language  of  the  Greeks,  to  be  only  inns. 
The  house  was  to  serve  only  for  a  lifetime,  the  tomb 
for  eternity. 

Tombs. — The  Great  Pyramid  is  a  royal  tomb.  An- 
cient tombs  ordinarily  had  this  form.  In  Lower 
Egypt  there  still  remain  pyramids  arranged  in  rows 
or  scattered  about,  some  larger,  others  smaller.  These 
are  the  tombs  of  kings  and  nobles.  Later  the  tombs 
are  constructed  underground,  some  under  earth,  others 
cut  into  the  granite  of  the  hills.  Each  generation 
needs  new  ones,  and  therefore  near  the  town  of  living 
people  is  built  the  richer  and  greater  city  of  the  dead 
(necropolis). 

Temples. — The  gods  also  required  eternal  and  splen- 
did habitations.  Their  temples  include  a  magnificent 
sanctuary,  the  dwelling  of  the  god,  surrounded  with 
courts,  gardens,  chambers  where  the  priests  lodge, 
wardrobes  for  his  jewels,  utensils,  and  vestments. 
This  combination  of  edifices,  the  work  of  many  genera- 
tions is  encircled  with  a  wall.  The  temple  of  Amnion 
at  Thebes  had  the  labors  of  the  kings  of  all  the  dynas- 
ties from  the  twelfth  to  the  last.  Ordinarily  in 
front  of  the  temple  a  great  gate-way  is  erected,  with 
inclined  faces — the  pylone.  On  either  side  of  the 
entrance  is  an  obelisk,  a  needle  of  rock  with  gilded 
point,  or  perhaps  a  colossus  in  stone  representing  a  sit- 
ting giant.  Often  the  approach  to  the  temple  is  by 
a  long  avenue  rimmed  with  sphinxes. 

Pyramids,  pylones,   colossi,  sphinxes,  and  obelisks 


ANCIENT    HISTORY    OF    THE    EAST  33 

characterize  this  architecture.  Everything  is  massive, 
compact,  and,  above  all,  immense.  Hence  these  monu- 
ments appear  clumsy  but  indestructible. 

Sculpture. — Egyptian  sculptors  began  with  imitat- 
ing nature.  The  oldest  statues  are  impressive  for 
their  life  and  freshness,  and  are  doubtless  portraits 
of  the  dead.  Of  this  sort  is  the  famous  squatting 
scribe  of  the  Louvre.^  But  beginning  with  the  eleventh 
dynasty  the  sculptor  is  no  longer  free  to  represent 
the  human  body  as  he  sees  it,  but  must  follow  con- 
ventional rules  fixed  by  religion.  And  so  all  the 
statues  resemble  one  another — parallel  legs,  the  feet 
joined,  arms  crossed  on  the  breast,  the  figure  motion- 
less; the  statues  are  often  majestic,  but  always  stiff 
and  monotonous.  Art  has  ceased  to  reproduce  nature 
and  is  become  a  conventional  symbol. 

Painting. — The  Egyptians  used  very  solid  colors; 
after  5,000  years  they  are  still  fresh  and  bright.  But 
they  were  ignorant  of  coloring  designs ;  they  knew 
neither  tints,  shadows,  nor  perspective.  Painting,  like 
sculpture,  was  subject  to  religious  rules  and  was  there- 
fore monotonous.  If  fifty  persons  were  to  be  repre- 
sented, the  artist  made  them  all  alike. 

Literature. — The  literature  of  the  Egyptians  is 
found  in  the  tombs — not  only  books  of  medicine,  of 
magic  and  of  piety,  but  also  poems,  letters,  accounts  of 
travels,  and  even  romances. 

Destiny  of  the  Egyptian  Civilization. — The  Egyp- 
tians conserved  their  customs,  religion,  and  arts  even 
after  the  fall  of  their  empire.     Subjects  of  the  Per- 

^  The  Louvre  Museum  in  Paris  has  an  excellent  collection  of 
Egyptian  subjects. 


34  ANCIENT    CIVILIZATION 

sians,  then  the  Greeks,  and  at  last  of  the  Romans,  they 
kept  their  old  usages,  their  hieroglyphics,  their  mum- 
mies and  sacred  animals.  At  last  between  the  third 
and  second  centuries  a.d._,  Egyptian  civilization  was 
slowly  extinguished. 


CHAPTER  IV 
ASSYRIANS  AND  BABYLONIANS 

CHALDEA 

The  Land. — From  the  high  and  snowy  mountains 
of  Armenia  flow  two  deep  and  rapid  rivers,  the  Tigris 
to  the  east,  the  Euphrates  to  the  west.  At  first  in  close 
proximity,  they  separate  as  they  reach  the  plain.  The 
Tigris  makes  a  straight  course,  the  Euphrates  a  great 
detour  towards  the  sandy  deserts ;  then  they  unite  be- 
fore emptying  into  the  sea.  The  country  which  they 
embrace  is  Chaldea.  It  is  an  immense  plain  of  ex- 
traordinarily fertile  soil ;  rain  is  rare  and  the  heat  is 
overwhelming.  But  the  streams  furnish  water  and 
this  clayey  soil  when  irrigated  by  canals  becomes  the 
most  fertile  in  the  world.  Wheat  and  barley  produce 
200-fold;  in  good  years  the  returns  are  300-fold. 
Palms  constitute  the  forests  and  from  these  the  people 
make  their  wine,  meal  and  flour. ^ 

The  People. — For  many  centuries,  perhaps  as  long 
as  Egypt,  Chaldea  has  been  the  abode  of  civilized  peo- 
ples. ]\Iany  races  from  various  lands  have  met  and 
mingled  in  these  great  plains.  There  were  Turanians 
of  the  yellow  race,  similar  to  the  Chinese,  who  came 
from  the  north-east ;  Cushites,  deep  brown  in  color, 
related  to  the  Egyptians,  came  from  the  east ;  Semites, 

^  A  Persian  song  enumerates  360  different  uses  of  the  palm. 

35 


36  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

of  the  white  race,  of  the  same  stock  as  the  Arabs,  de- 
scended from  the  north. ^  The  Chaldean  people  had  its 
origin  in  this  mixture  of  races. 

The  Cities. — Chaldean  priests  related  that  their  kings 
had  ruled  for  150,000  years.  While  this  is  a  fable, 
they  were  right  in  ascribing  great  antiquity  to  the 
Chaldean  empire.  The  soil  of  Chaldea  is  everywhere 
studded  with  hills  and  each  of  these  is  a  mass  of 
debris,  the  residue  of  a  ruined  city.  Many  of  these 
have  been  excavated  and  many  cities  brought  to  view. 
(Our,  Larsam,  Bal-ilou),  and  some  inscriptions  re- 
covered. De  Sarsec,  a  Frenchman,  has  discovered 
the  ruins  of  an  entire  city,  overwhelmed  by  the  in- 
vader and  its  palace  destroyed  by  fire.  These  ancient 
peoples  are  still  little  known  to  us ;  many  sites  remain  to 
be  excavated  when  it  is  hoped  new  inscriptions  will  be 
found.  Their  empire  was  destroyed  about  2,300  B.C. ; 
it  may  then  have  been  very  old.- 

THE  ASSYRIANS 

Assyria. — The  country  back  of  Chaldea  on  the 
Tigris  is  Assyria.  It  also  is  fertile,  but  cut  with  hills 
and  rocks.  Situated  near  the  mountains,  it  experi- 
ences snow  in  winter  and  severe  storms  in  summer. 

Origins. — Chaldea  had  for  a  long  time  been  covered 
with  towns  while  yet  the  Assyri.ans  lived  an  obscure 
life  in  their  mountains.  About  the  thirteenth  century 
B.C.  their  kings  leading  great  armies  began  to  invade 
the  plains  and  founded  a  mighty  empire  whose  capital 
was  Nineveh. 

^  Or  perhaps  from  the  east  (Arabia). — Ed. 

2  Recent  discoveries  confirm  the  view  of  a  very  ancier^t^  ciy^Ji;z^^ 
tion. — Ed. 


ASSYRIANS    AND    BABYLONIANS  37 

Ancient  Accounts. — Until  about  forty  years  ago  we 
knew  almost  nothing  of  the  Assyrians — only  a  legend 
recounted  by  the  Greek  Diodorus  Siculus.  Xinus, 
according  to  the  story,  had  founded  Xineveh  and  con- 
quered all  Asia  ]\Iinor;  his  wife,  Semiramis,  daughter 
of  a  goddess,  had  subjected  Egypt,  after  which  she 
was  changed  into  the  form  of  a  dove.  Incapable  kings 
had  succeeded  this  royal  pair  for  the  space  of  1,300 
years;  the  last,  Sardanapalus,  besieged  in  his  capital, 
was  burnt  with  his  wives.  This  romance  has  not  a 
word  of  truth  in  it. 

Modern  Discoveries. — In  1843,  Botta,  the  French 
consul  at  Mossoul,  discovered  under  a  hillock  near  the 
Tigris,  at  Khorsabad,  the  palace  of  an  Assyrian  king. 
Here  for  the  first  time  one  could  view  the  productions 
of  Assyrian  art;  the  winged  bulls  cut  in  stone,  placed 
at  the  gate  of  the  palace  were  found  intact  and  re- 
moved to  the  Louvre  Museum  in  Paris.  The  excava- 
tions of  Botta  drew  the  attention  of  Europe,  so  that 
many  expeditions  were  sent  out,  especially  by  the  Eng- 
lish ;  Place  and  Layard  investigated  other  mounds  and 
discovered  other  palaces.  These  ruins  had  been  well 
preserved,  protected  by  the  dryness  of  the  climate  and 
by  a  covering  of  earth.'  They  found  walls  adorned 
with  bas-reliefs  and  paintings ;  statues  and  inscriptions 
were  discovered  in  g'reat  number.  It  was  now  pos- 
sible to  study  on  the  ground  the  plan  of  the  structures 
and  to  publish  reproductions  of  the  monuments  and 
inscriptions. 

The  palace  first  discovered,  that  of  Khorsabad,  had 
been  built  by  King  Sargon  at  Xineveh,  the  site  of  the 
capital  of  the  Assyrian  kings.     The  city  was  built  on 


38  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

several  eminences,  and  was  encircled  by  a  wall  25  to 
30  miles^  in  length,  in  the  form  of  a  quadrilateral. 
The  wall  was  composed  of  bricks  on  the  exterior  and 
of  earth  within.  The  dwellings  of  the  city  have  dis- 
appeared leaving  no  traces,  but  we  have  recovered 
many  palaces  constructed  by  various  kings  of  Assyria. 
Nineveh  remained  the  residence  of  the  kings  down  to 
the  time  that  the  Assyrian  empire  was  destroyed  by  the 
Medes  and  Chaldeans. 

Inscriptions  on  the  Bricks. — In  these  inscriptions 
every  character  is  formed  of  a  combination  of  signs 
shaped  like  an  arrow  or  wedge,  and  this  is  the  reason 
that  this  style  of  writing  is  termed  cuneiform  (Latin 
cuneiis  and  forma).  To  trace  these  signs  the  writer 
used  a  stylus  with  a  triangular  point;  he  pressed  it 
into  a  tablet  of  soft  clay  which  was  afterwards  baked 
to  harden  it  and  to  make  the  impression  permanent. 
In  the  palace  of  Assurbanipal  a  complete  library  of 
brick  tablets  has  been  found  in  which  brick  serves  the 
purpose  of  paper. 

Cuneiform  Writing. — For  many  years  the  cuneiform 
writing  has  occupied  the  labors  of  many  scholars  im- 
patient to  decipher  it.  It  has  been  exceedingly  difficult 
to  read,  for,  in  the  first  place,  it  served  as  the  writing 
medium  of  five  different  languages — Assyrian,  Susian, 
Mede,  Chaldean,  and  Armenian,  without  counting  the 
Old  Persian — and  there  was  no^jpwledge  of  these 
five  languages.  Then,  too,  it  is4^V  complicated,  for 
several  reasons : 

I.     It  is  composed  at  the  same  time  of  symbolic 

*  Somewhat  exaggerated.  See  Perrot  and  Chipiez,  "History 
of  Art  in  Assyria  and  Chaldea,"  ii.,  60;  and  Maspero,  "Passing 
of  the  Empires,"  p.  468. — Ed. 


ASSYRIANS    AND    BABYLONIANS  39 

signs,  each  of  which  represents  a  word  (sun,  god, 
fish),  and  of  syllabic  signs,  each  of  which  represents 
a  syllable. 

2.  There  are  nearly  two  hundred  syllabic  signs, 
much  alike  and  easy  to  confuse. 

3.  The  same  sign  is  often  the  representation  of  a 
word  and  a  syllable. 

g..  Often  (and  this  is  the  hardest  condition)  the 
same  sign  is  used  to  represent  different  syllables.  Thus 
the  same  sign  is  sometimes  read  "ilou,"  and  sometimes 
*'an."  This  writing  was  difficult  even  for  those  who 
executed  it.  ''A  good  half  of  the  cuneiform  monu- 
ments which  we  possess  comprises  guides  (grammars, 
dictionaries,  pictures),  whioli  enable  us  to  decipher  the 
other  half,  and  which  we  consult  just  as  Assyrian 
scholars  did  2,500  years  ago."^ 

Cuneiform  inscriptions  have  been  solved  in  the  same 
manner  as  the  Egyptian  hieroglyphics — there  was  an 
inscription  in  three  languages — Assyrian,  ^Nlede,  and 
Persian.     The  last  gave  the  key  to  the  other  two. 

The  Assyrian  People. — The  Assyrians  were  a  race 
of  hunters  and  soldiers.  Their  bas-reliefs  ordinarily 
represent  them  armed  with  bow  and  lance,  often  on 
horseback.  They  were  good  knights — alert,  brave, 
clever  in  skirmish  and  battle;  also  bombastic,  deceit- 
ful, and  sanguinary.  For  six  centuries  they  harassed 
Asia,  issuing  from  their  mountains  to  hurl  themselves 
on  their  neighbor^^d  returning  with  entire  peoples 
reduced  to  slaver^^PThey  apparently  made  war  for 
the  mere  pleasure  of  slaying,  ravaging,  and  pillaging. 
No  people  ever  exhibited  greater  ferocity. 

*  Lenormant,  "Ancient  History." 


40  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

The  King. — Following  Asiatic  usage  they  regarded 
their  king  as  the  representative  of  God  on  earth  and 
gave  him  blind  obedience.  He  v^as  absolute  master 
of  all  his  subjects,  he  led  them  in  battle,  and  at  their 
head  fought  against  other  peoples  of  Asia.  On  his 
return  he  recorded  his  exploits  on  the  walls  of  his  pal- 
ace in  a  long  inscription  in  which  he  told  of  his  vic- 
tories, the  booty  which  he  had  taken,  the  cities  burned, 
the  captives  beheaded  or  flayed  alive.  We  present 
some  passages  from  these  stories  of  campaigns : 

Assurnazir-hapal  in  882  says,  *'I  built  a  wall  before 
the  great  gates  of  the  city;  I  flayed  the  chiefs  of  the 
revolt  and  with  their  skins  I  covered  this  wall.  Some 
were  immured  alive  in  the  masonry,  others  were  cruci- 
fied or  impaled  along  the  wall.  I  had  some  of  them 
flayed  in  my  presence  and  had  the  wall  hung  with 
their  skins.  I  arranged  their  heads  like  crowns  and 
their  transfixed  bodies  in  the  form  of  garlands." 

In  745  Tiglath-Pilezer  II  writes,  "I  shut  up  the  king 
in  his  royal  city.  I  raised  mountains  of  bodies  before 
his  gates.  All  his  villages  I  destroyed,  desolated, 
burnt.  I  made  the  country  desert,  I  changed  it  into 
hills  and  mounds  of  debris." 

In  the  seventh  century  Sennacherib  wrote:  ''I 
passed  like  a  hurricane  of  desolation.  On  the  drenched 
earth  the  armor  and  arms  swam  in  the  blood  of  the 
enemy  as  in  a  river.  I  heaped  up  the  bodies  of  their 
soldiers  like  trophies  and  I  cut  ofifS^ir  extremities.  I 
mutilated  those  whom  I  took  alive  Hke  blades  of  straw ; 
as  punishment  I  cut  off  their  hands."  In  a  bas-relief 
which  shows  the  town  of  Susa  surrendering  to  Assur- 
banipal  one  sees  the  chiefs  of  the  conquered  tortured 


ASSYRIANS    AND    BABYLONIANS  41 

by  the  Assyrians;  some  have  their  ears  cut  off,  the 
eyes  of  others  are  put  out,  the  beard  torn  out,  while 
some  are  flayed  ahve.  Evidently  these  kings  took  de- 
light in  burnings,  massacres,  and  tortures. 

Ruin  of  the  Assyrian  Empire. — The  Assyrian  regime 
began  with  the  capture  of  Babylon  (about  1270). 
From  the  ninth  century  the  Assyrians,  always  at  war, 
subjected  or  ravaged  Babylonia,  Syria,  Palestine,  and 
even  Egypt.  The  conquered  always  revolted,  and  the 
massacres  were  repeated.  At  last  the  Assyrians  were 
exhausted.  The  Babylonians  and  Medes  made  an  alli- 
ance and  destroyed  their  empire.  In  625  their  capital, 
Nineveh,  *'the  lair  of  lions,  the  bloody  city,  the  city 
gorged  with  prey,"  as  the  Jewish  prophets  call  it, 
was  taken  and  destroyed  forever.  "Nineveh  is  laid 
waste,"  says  the  prophet  Nahum,  "who  will  bemoan 
her?" 

THE  BABYLONIANS 

The  Second  Chaldean  Empire. — In  the  place  of  the 
fallen  Assyrian  empire  there  arose  a  new  power — in 
ancient  Chaldea.  This  has  received  the  name  Baby- 
lonian Empire  or  the  Second  Chaldean  Empire.  A 
Jewish  prophet  makes  one  say  to  Jehovah,  "I  raise  up 
the  Chaldeans,  that  bitter  and  hasty  nation  which  shall 
march  through  the  breadth  of  the  land  to  possess 
dwelling  places  that  are  not  theirs.  Their  horses  are 
swifter  than  leopards.  Their  horsemen  spread  them- 
selves; (their  horsemen)  shall  fly  as  the  eagle  that 
hasteth  to  eat."  They  were  a  people  of  knights,  mar- 
tial and  victorious,  like  the  Assyrians.  They  subjected 
Susiana,  Mesopotamia,  Syria,  and  Jordan.     But  their 


42  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

regime  was  short:  founded  in  625,  the  Babylonian 
Empire  was  overthrown  by  the  Persians  in  538. 

Babylon. — The  mightiest  of  its  kings,  Nebuchad- 
rezzar (or  Nebuchadnezzar),  604-561,  who  destroyed 
Jerusalem  and  carried  the  Jews  into  captivity,  built 
many  temples  and  places  in  Babylon,  his  capital. 
These  monuments  were  in  crude  brick  as  the  plain  of 
the  Euphrates  has  no  supply  of  stone;  in  the  process 
of  decay  they  have  left  only  enormous  masses  of  earth 
and  debris.  And  yet  it  has  been  possible  on  the  site 
of  Babylon  to  recover  some  inscriptions  and  to  restore 
the  plan  of  the  city.  The  Greek  Herodotus  who  had 
visited  Babylon  in  the  fifth  century  B.C.,  describes  it  in 
detail.  The  city  was  surrounded  by  a  square  wall  cut 
by  the  Euphrates;  it  covered  about  185  square  miles, 
or  seven  times  the  extent  of  Paris.  This  immense 
space  was  not  filled  with  houses ;  much  of  it  was  occu- 
pied with  fields  to  be  cultivated  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  people  in  the  event  of  a  siege.  Babylon  was  less  a 
city  than  a  fortified  camp.  The  walls  equipped  with 
towers  and  pierced  by  a  hundred  gates  of  brass  were  so 
thick  that  a  chariot  might  be  driven  on  them.  All 
around  the  wall  was  a  large,  deep  ditch  full  of  water, 
with  its  sides  lined  with  brick.  The  houses  of  the  city 
were  constructed  of  three  or  four  stories.  The  streets 
intersected  at  right  angles.  The  bridge  and  docks  of 
the  Euphrates  excited  admiration;  the  fortified  palace 
also,  and  the  hanging  gardens,  one  of  the  seven 
wonders  of  the  world.  These  gardens  were  terraces 
planted  with  trees,  supported  by  pillars  and  rows  of 
arches. 

Tower  of  Babylon. — Hard  by  the  city  Nebuchad- 


ASSYRIANS   AND    BABYLONIANS  43 

nezzar  had  aimed  to  rebuild  the  town  of  Babel.  ''For 
the  admiration  of  men,"  he  says  in  an  inscription : 
"I  rebuilt  and  renovated  the  wonder  of  Borsippa,  the 
temple  of  the  seven  spheres  of  the  world.  I  laid  the 
foundations  and  built  it  according  to  its  ancient  plan." 
This  temple,  in  the  form  of  a  square,  comprised  seven 
square  towers  raised  one  above  another,  each  tower 
being  dedicated  to  one  of  the  seven  planets  and  painted 
with  the  color  attributed  by  religion  to  this  planet. 
They  wqtq,  beginning  with  the  lowest:  Saturn  (black), 
Venus  (white),  Jupiter  (purple),  Mercury  (blue). 
Mars  (vermilion),  the  moon  (silver),  the  sun  (gold). 
The  highest  tower  contained  a  chapel  with  a  table  of 
gold  and  magnificent  couch  whereon  a  priestess  kept 
watch  continually. 

CUSTOMS  AND  RELIGION 

Customs. — We  know^  almost  nothing  of  these  peoples 
apart  from  the  testimony  ot  their  monuments,  and 
nearly  all  of  these  refer  to  the  achievements  of  their 
kings.  The  Assyrians  are  always  represented  at  war, 
hunting,  or  in  the  performance  of  ceremonies;  their 
women  never  appear  on  the  bas-reliefs ;  they  were  con- 
fined in  a  harem  and  never  went  into  public  life. 
The  Chaldeans  on  the  contrary,  were  a  race  of  laborers 
and  merchants,  but  of  their  life  we  know  nothing. 
Herodotus  relates  that  once  a  year  in  their  towns  they 
assembled  all  the  girls  to  give  them  in  marriage ;  they 
sold  the  prettiest,  and  the  profits  of  the  sale  of  these 
became  a  dower  for  the  marriage  of  the  plainest. 
"According  to  my  view,"  he  adds,  "this  is  the  wisest 
of  all  their  laws." 


44  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Religion. — The  religion  of  the  Assyrians  and  Chal- 
deans was  the  same,  for  the  former  had  adopted  that 
of  the  latter.  It  is  very  obscure  to  us,  since  it  orig- 
inated, like  that  of  the  Chaldean  people,  in  a  confusion 
of  religions  very  differently  mingled.  The  Turanians, 
like  the  present  yellow  race  of  Siberia,  imagined  the 
world  full  of  demons  (plague,  fever,  phantoms,  vam- 
pires), engaged  in  prowling  around  men  to  do  them 
harm ;  sorcerers  were  invoked  to  banish  these  demons 
by  magical  formulas.  The  Cushites  adored  a  pair  of 
gods,  the  male  deity  of  force  and  the  female  of  matter. 
The  Chaldean  priests,  united  in  a  powerful  guild,  con- 
fused the  two  religions  into  a  single  one. 

The  Gods. — The  supreme  god  at  Babylon  is  Ilou ;  in 
Assyria,  Assur.  No  temple  was  raised  to  him.  Three 
gods  proceed  from  him :  Anou,  the  "lord  of  darkness," 
under  the  figure  of  a  man  with  the  head  of  a  fish  and 
the  tail  of  an  eagle;  Bel,  the  "sovereign  of  spirits," 
represented  as  a  king  on  the  throne;  Nouah,  the  "mas- 
ter of  the  visible  world,"  under  the  form  of  a  genius 
with  four  extended  wings.  Each  has  a  feminine  coun- 
terpart who  symbolizes  fruitfulness.  Below  these 
gods  are  the  Sun,  the  Moon,  and  the  five  planets,  for 
in  the  transparent  atmosphere  of  Chaldea  the  stars 
shine  with  a  brilliancy  which  is  strange  to  us;  they 
gleam  like  deities.  To  these  the  Chaldeans  raised 
temples,  veritable  observatories  in  which  men  who 
adored  them  could  follow  all  their  motions. 

Astrology. — The  priests  believed  that  these  stars,  be- 
ing powerful  deities,  had  determining  influence  on  the 
lives  of  men.  Every  man  comes  into  the  world  under 
the  influence  of  a  planet  and  this  moment  decides  his 


ASSYRIANS   AND    BABYLONIANS  45 

destiny;  one  may  foretell  one's  fortune  if  the  star 
under  which  one  is  born  is  known.  This  is  the  origin 
of  the  horoscope.  What  occurs  in  heaven  is  indicative 
of  what  will  come  to  pass  on  earth ;  a  comet,  for  ex- 
ample, announces  a  revolution.  By  observing  the 
heavens  the  Chaldean  priests  believed  they  could  pre- 
dict events.     This  is  the  origin  of  Astrology. 

Sorcery. — The  Chaldeans  had  also  magical  words; 
these  were  uttered  to  banish  spirits  or  to  cause  their  ap- 
pearance. This  custom,  a  relic  of  the  Turanian  relig- 
ion, is  the  origin  of  sorcery.  From  Chaldea  astrology 
and  sorcery  were  diffused  over  the  Roman  empire,  and 
later  over  all  Europe.  In  the  formulas  of  sorcery  of 
the  sixteenth  century  corrupted  Assyrian  words  may 
still  be  detected.^ 

Sciences. — On  the  other  hand  it  is  in  Chaldea  that 
we  have  the  beginning  of  astronomy.  From  this  land 
have  come  down  to  us  the  zodiac,  the  week  of  seven 
days  in  honor  of  the  seven  planets ;  the  division  of  the 
year  into  twelve  months,  of  the  day  into  twenty-four 
hours,  of  the  hour  into  sixty  minutes,  of  the  minute 
into  sixty  seconds.  Here  originated,  too,  the  system 
of  weights  and  measures  reckoned  on  the  unit  of 
length,  a  system  adopted  by  all  the  ancient  peoples. 

ARTS 

Architecture — We  do  not  have  direct  knowledge  of 
the  art  of  the  Chaldeans,  sinc.e  their  monuments  have 
fallen  to  ruin.  But  the  Assyrian  artists  whose  works 
we  possess  imitated  those  of  Chaldea,  and  so  we  may 

*  For  example,  hilka,  hilka,  bescha,  bescha  (begone!  begone! 
bad!  bad!) 


46  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

form  a  judgment  at  the  same  time  of  the  two  countries. 
The  Assyrians  Hke  the  Chaldeans  built  with  crude, 
sun-dried  brick,  but  they  faced  the  exterior  of  the  wall 
with  stone. 

Palaces. — They  constructed  their  palaces^  on  artifi- 
cial mounds,  making  these  low  and  flat  like  great  ter- 
races. The  crude  brick  was  not  adapted  to  broad  and 
high  arches.  Halls  must  therefore  be  straight  and 
low,  but  in  compensation  they  were  very  long.  An 
Assyrian  palace,  then,  resembled  a  succession  of  gal- 
leries; the  roofs  were  flat  terraces  provided  with  bat- 
tlements. At  the  gate  stood  gigantic  winged  bulls. 
Within,  the  walls  were  covered  now  with  panelling 
in  precious  woods,  now  with  enamelled  bricks,  now 
with  plates  of  sculptural  alabaster.  Sometimes  the 
chambers  were  painted,  and  even  richly  encrusted  mar- 
bles were  used. 

Sculpture. — The  sculpture  of  the  Assyrian  palaces 
is  especially  admirable.  Statues,  truly,  are  rare  and 
coarse;  sculptors  preferred  to  execute  bas-reliefs  sim- 
ilar to  pictures  on  great  slabs  of  alabaster.  They 
represented  scenes  which  were  often  very  complicated 
— battles,  chases,  sieges  of  towns,  ceremonies  in  which 
the  king  appeared  with  a  great  retinue.  Every  detail 
is  scrupulously  done;  one  sees  the  files  of  servants  in 
charge  of  the  feast  of  the  king,  the  troops  of  work- 
men who  built  his  palace,  the  gardens,  the  fields,  the 
ponds,  the  fish  in  the  water,  the  birds  perched  over 
their  nests  or  flitting  from  tree  to  tree.  Persons  are 
exhibited  in  profile,  doubtless  because  the  artist  could 

1  The  temples  were  pyramidal,  of  stories  or  terraces  similar  to 
the  tower  of  Borsippa. 


ASSYRIANS    AND    BABYLONIANS  47 

not  depict  the  face;  but  they  possess  dignity  and  Hfe. 
Animals  often  appeared,  especially  in  hunting  scenes; 
they  are  ordinarily  made  with  a  startling  fidelity.  The 
Assyrians  observed  nature  and  faithfully  reproduced 
it ;  hence  the  merit  of  their  art. 

The  Greeks  themselves  learned  in  this  school,  by 
imitating  the  Assyrian  bas-reliefs.  They  have  ex- 
celled them,  but  no  people,  not  even  the  Greeks,  has 
better  known  how  to  represent  animals. 


CHAPTER   V 
THE  ARYANS  OF  INDIA 

THE  ARYANS 

Aryan  Languages. — The  races  which  in  our  day 
inhabit  Europe — Greeks  and  Itahans  to  the  south, 
Slavs  in  Russia,  Teutons  in  Germany,  Celts  in  Ireland 
— speak  very  different  languages.  When,  however, 
one  studies  these  languages  closely,  it  is  perceived  that 
all  possess  a  stock  of  common  words,  or  at  least  certain 
roots.  The  same  roots  occur  in  Sanscrit,  the  ancient 
language  of  the  Hindoos,  and  also  in  Zend,  the  ancient 
tongue  of  the  Persians.     Thus, 

Father — pere  (French),  pitar  (Sanscrit),  pater 
(Greek  and  Latin).  It  is  the  same  word  pronounced 
in  various  ways.  From  this  (and  other  such  exam- 
ples) it  has  been  concluded  that  all — Hindoos,  Per- 
sians, Greeks,  Latins,  Celts,  Germans,  Slavs — once 
spoke  the  same  language,  and  consequently  were  one 
people. 

The  Aryan  People — These  peoples  then  called  them- 
selves Aryans  and  lived  to  the  north-west  of  India, 
either  in  the  mountains  of  Pamir,  or  in  the  steppes  of 
Turkestan  or  Russia;  from  this  centre  they  dispersed 
in  all  directions.  The  majority  of  the  people — Greeks, 
Latins,  Germans,  Slavs — forgot  their  origin;  but  the 
sacred  books  of  the  Hindoos  and  the  Persians  pre- 

48 


THE    ARYANS    OF    INDIA  49 

serve  the  tradition.  Effort  has  been  made^  to  recon- 
struct the  hfe  of  our  Aryan  ancestors  in  their  mountain 
home  before  the  dispersion.  It  was  a  race  of  shep- 
herds ;  they  did  not  till  the  soil,  but  subsisted  from  their 
herds  of  cattle  and  sheep,  though  they  already  had 
houses  and  even  villages. 

It  was  a  fighting  race ;  they  knew  the  lance,  the  jav- 
elin, and  shield.  Government  was  patriarchal ;  a  man 
had  but  one  wife ;  as  head  of  the  family  he  was  for  his 
wife,  his  children,  and  his  servants  at  once  priest,  judge, 
and  king.  In  all  the  countries  settled  by  the  Aryans 
they  have  followed  this  type  of  life — patriarchal,  mar- 
tial, and  pastoral. 

PRIMITIVE  RELIGION  OF  THE  HINDOOS 

The  Aryans  on  the  Indus — About  2,000  years  before 
our  era  some  Aryan  tribes  traversed  the  passes  of  the 
Hindu-Kush  and  swarmed  into  India.  They  found 
the  fertile  plains  of  the  Indus  inhabited  by  a  people  of 
dark  skin,  w4th  flat  heads,  industrious  and  wealthy; 
they  called  these  aborigines  Dasyous  (the  enemy). 
They  made  war  on  them  for  centuries  and  ended  by 
exterminating  or  subjecting  them ;  they  then  gradually 
took  possession  of  all  the  Indus  valley  (the  region  of 
the  five  rivers).-  They  then  called  themselves  Hin- 
doos. 

The  Vedas. — These  people  were  accustomed  in  their 
ceremonies  to  chant  hymns  (vedas)  in  honor  of  their 

*  The  process  is  as  follows :  when  a  word  (or  rather  a  root)  is 
foiind  in  several  Aryan  languages  at  once,  it  is  admitted  that  this 
was  in  use  before  the  dispersion  occurred,  and  therefore  the  people 
knew  the  object  derignated  by  the  word. 

2  The  Punjab.— Ed. 


50  ANCIENT    CIVILIZATION 

gods.  These  chants  constituted  a  vast  compilation 
which  has  been  preserved  to  the  present  time.  They 
were  collected,  perhaps,  about  the  fourteenth  century 
B.C.  when  the  Aryans  had  not  yet  passed  the  Indus. 
The  hymns  present  to  us  the  oldest  religion  of  the 
Hindoos. 

The  Gods. — The  Hindoo  calls  his  gods  devas  (the 
resplendent).  Everything  that  shines  is  a  divinity — 
the  heavens,  the  dawn,  the  clouds,  the  stars — but  es- 
pecially the  sun  (Indra)  and  fire  (Agni). 

Indra. — The  sun,  Indra,  the  mighty  one,  *'king  of 
the  world  and  master  of  creatures,"  bright  and  warm, 
traverses  the  heavens  on  a  car  drawn  by  azure  steeds ; 
he  it  is  who  hurls  the  thunderbolt,  sends  the  rain,  and 
banishes  the  clouds.  India  is  a  country  of  violent 
tempests ;  the  Hindoo  struck  with  this  phenomenon  ex- 
plained it  in  his  own  fashion.  He  conceived  the  black 
cloud  as  an  envelope  in  which  were  contained  the 
waters  of  heaven ;  these  beneficent  waters  he  called  the 
gleaming  cows  of  Indra.  When  the  storm  is  gather- 
ing, an  evil  genius,  Vritra,  a  three-headed  serpent,  has 
driven  away  the  cows  and  enclosed  them  in  the  black 
cavern  whence  their  bellowings  are  heard  (the  far- 
away rumblings  of  thunder).  Indra  applies  himself 
to  the  task  of  finding  them ;  he  strikes  the  cavern  with 
his  club,  the  strokes  of  which  are  heard  (the  thunder- 
bolt), and  the  forked  tongue  of  the  serpent  (the  light- 
ning) darts  forth.  At  last  the  serpent  is  vanquished, 
the  cave  is  opened,  the  waters  released  fall  on  the  earth, 
Indra  the  victor  appears  in  glory. 

Agni. — Fire  (Agni,  the  tireless)  is  regarded  as 
another  form  of  the  sun.     The  Hindoo,  who  produces 


THE    ARYANS    OF    INDIA  51 

it  by  rapidly  rubbing  two  pieces  of  wood  together, 
imagines  that  the  fire  comes  from  the  wood  and  that 
the  rain  has  placed  it  there.  He  conceives  it  then  as 
the  fire  of  heaven  descended  to  earth ;  in  fact,  when  one 
places  it  on  the  hearth,  it  springs  up  as  if  it  would 
ascend  toward  heaven.  Agni  dissipates  darkness, 
W'arms  mankind,  and  cooks  his  food;  it  is  the  bene- 
factor and  the  protector  of  the  house.  It  is  also  "the 
internal  fire,"  the  soul  of  the  world;  even  the  ancestor 
of  the  human  race  is  the  "son  of  lightning."  Thus, 
heat  and  light,  sources  of  all  life,  are  the  deities  of  the 
Hindoo. 

Worship. — To  adore  his  gods  he  strives  to  repro- 
duce what  he  sees  in  heaven".  He  ignites  a  terrestrial 
fire  by  rubbing  sticks,  he  nourishes  it  by  depositing  on 
the  hearth,  butter,  milk,  and  soma,  a  fermented  drink. 
To  delight  the  gods  he  makes  offerings  to  them  of 
fruits  and  cakes :  he  even  sacrifices  to  them  cattle,  rams 
and  horses;  he  then  invokes  them,  chanting  hymns  to 
their  praise.  "When  thou  art  bidden  by  us  to  quaff 
the  soma,  come  with  thy  sombre  steeds,  thou  deity 
whose  darts  are  stones.  Our  celebrant  is  seated  ac- 
cording to  prescription,  the  sacred  green  is  spread,  in 
the  morning  stones  have  been  gathered  together. 
Take  thy  seat  on  the  holy  sward ;  taste,  O  hero,  our 
offering  to  thee.  Delight  thyself  in  our  libations  and 
our  chants,  vanquisher  of  Vritra,  thou  who  art  hon- 
ored in  these  ceremonies  of  ours,  O  Indra." 

The  Hindoo  thinks  that  the  gods,  felicitated  by  his 
offerings  and  homage,  will  in  their  turn  make  him 
happy.  He  says  naively,  "Give  sacrifice  to  the  gods 
for  their  profit,  and  they  will  requite  you.     Just  as  men 


52  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

.traffic  by  the  discussion  of  prices,  let  us  exchange  force 
and  vigor,  O  Indra.  Give  to  me  and  I  will  give  to 
you ;  bring  to  me  and  I  will  bring  to  you." 

Ancestor  Worship — At  the  same  time  the  Hindoo 
adores  his  ancestors  who  have  become  gods,  and  per- 
haps this  cult  is  the  oldest  of  all.  It  is  the  basis  of 
the  family.  The  father  who  has  transmitted  the  *'fire 
of  life"  to  his  children  makes  offering  every  day  at  his 
hearth-fire,  which  must  never  be  extinguished,  the 
sacrifice  to  gods  and  ancestors,  and  utters  the  prayers. 
Here  it  is  seen  that  among  Hindoos,  as  among  other 
Aryans,  the  father  is  at  once  a  priest  and  a  sovereign. 

THE  BRAHMANIC  SOCIETY 

The  Hindoos  on  the  Ganges — The  Hindoos  passing 
beyond  the  region  of  the  Indus,  between  the  fourteenth 
and  tenth  century  B.C.  conquered  all  the  immense  plains 
of  the  Ganges.  Once  settled  in  this  fertile  country, 
under  a  burning  climate,  in  the  midst  of  a  people  of 
slaves,  they  gradually  changed  customs  and  religion. 
And  so  the  Brahmanic  society  was  established.  Many 
works  in  Sanscrit  are  preserved  from  this  time,  which, 
with  the  Vedas,  form  the  sacred  literature  of  the 
Hindoos.  The  principal  are  the  great  epic  poems,  the 
Mahabarata,  which  has  more  than  200,000  verses; 
the  Ramayana  with  50,000,  and  the  laws  of  Manou, 
the  sacred  code  of  India. 

Caste. — In  this  new  society  there  were  no  longer,  as 
in  the  time  of  the  Vedas,  poets  who  chanted  hymns 
to  the  gods.  The  men  who  know  the  prayers  and  the 
ceremonies  are  become  theologians  by  profession ;  the 


THE   ARYANS    OF   INDIA  53 

people  revere  and  obey  them.  The  following  is  their 
conception  of  the  structure  of  society:  the  supreme 
god,  Brahma,  has  produced  four  kinds  of  men  to  each 
of  whom  he  has  assigned  a  mission.  From  his  mouth 
he  drew  the  Brahmans,  who  are,  of  course,  the  theolo- 
gians ;  their  mission  is  to  study,  to  teach  the  hymns,  to 
perform  the  sacrifices.  The  Kchatrias  have  come  from 
his  arms ;  these  are  the  warriors  who  are  charged  with 
the  protection  of  the  people.  The  Vaicyas  proceed 
from  the  thigh;  they  must  raise  cattle,  till  the  earth, 
loan  money  at  interest,  and  engage  in  commerce.  The 
Soudras  issue  from  his  foot;  their  only  mission  is  to 
serve  all  the  others. 

There  were  already  in  the  Aryan  people  theologians, 
warriors,  artisans,  and  below  them  aborigines  reduced 
to  slavery.  These  were  classes  which  one  could  enter 
and  from  which  one  could  withdraw.  But  the  Brah- 
mans determined  that  every  man  should  be  attached  to 
the  condition  in  which  he  was  born,  he  and  his  descend- 
ants for  all  time.  The  son  of  a  workman  could  never 
become  a  warrior,  nor  the  son  of  a  warrior  a  theolo- 
gian. Thus  each  is  chained  to  his  own  state.  Society 
is  divided  into  four  hereditary  and  closed  castes. 

The  Unclean. — Whoever  is  not  included  in  one  of  the 
four  castes  is  unclean,  excluded  from  society  and  re- 
ligion. The  Brahmans  reckoned  forty-four  grades  of 
outcasts :  the  last  and  the  lowest  is  that  of  the  pariahs ; 
their  very  name  is  an  insult.  The  outcasts  may  not 
practise  any  honorable  trade  nor  approach  other  men. 
They  may  possess  only  dogs  and  asses,  for  these  are 
unclean  beasts.  "They  must  have  for  their  clothing 
the  garments  of  the  dead ;  for  plates,  broken  pots ;  orna- 


54  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

ments  of  iron;  they  must  be  ceaselessly  on  the  move 
from  one  place  to  another." 

The  Brahmans. — In  the  organization  of  society  the 
Brahmans  were  assigned  the  first  place.  ''Men  are  the 
first  among  intelligent  beings;  the  Brahmans  are  the 
first  among  men.  They  are  higher  than  warriors,  than 
kings,  even.  As  between  a  Brahman  of  ten  years  of 
age  and  a  Kchatria  of  one  hundred  years,  the  Brahman 
is  to  be  regarded  as  the  father."  These  are  not  priests 
as  in  Egypt  and  Chaldea,  but  only  men  who  know  re- 
ligion, and  pass  their  time  in  reading  and  meditating 
on  the  sacred  books;  they  live  from  presents  made  to 
them  by  other  men.  To  this  day  they  are  the  dom- 
inating class  of  India.  As  they  marry  only  among 
themselves,  better  than  the  other  Hindoos  they  have 
preserved  the  Aryan  type  and  have  a  clearer  resem- 
blance to  Europeans. 

The  New  Religion  of  Brahma The  Brahmans  did 

not  discard  the  ancient  gods  of  the  Vedas,  they  con- 
tinued to  adore  them.  But  by  sheer  ingenuity  they 
invented  a  new  god.  When  prayers  are  addressed  to 
the  gods,  the  deities  are  made  to  comply  with  the  de- 
mands made  on  them,  as  if  they  thought  that  prayer 
was  more  powerful  than  the  gods.  And  so  prayer 
(Brahma)  has  become  the  highest  of  all  deities.  He 
is  invoked  with  awe  :^  "O  god,  I  behold  in  thy  body  all 
the  gods  and  the  multitudes  of  living  beings.  I  am 
powerless  to  regard  thee  in  thine  entirety,  for  thou 
shinest  like  the  fire  and  the  sun  in  thine  immensity. 
Thou  art  the  Invisible,  thou  art  the  supreme  Intelli- 
gence, thou  art  the  sovereign  treasure  of  the  universe, 
*  Prayer  of  the  Mahabarata  cited  by  Lenormant. 


THE   ARYANS   OF   INDIA  55 

without  beginning,  middle,  or  end;  equipped  with  in- 
finite might.  Thine  arms  are  without  hmit,  thine  eyes 
are  hke  the  moon  and  the  sun,  thy  mouth  hath  the 
brightness  of  the  sacred  fire.  With  thyself  alone  thou 
fillest  all  the  space  between  heaven  and  earth,  and  thou 
permeatest  all  the  universe."  Brahma  is  not  only 
supreme  god;  he  is  the  soul  of  the  universe.  All  be- 
ings are  born  from  Brahma,  all  issue  naturally  from 
him,  not  as  a  product  comes  from  the  hands  of  an 
artisan,  but  "as  the  tree  from  the  seed,  as  the  web 
from  the  spider."  Brahma  is  not  a  deity  who  has 
created  the  world;  he  is  the  very  substance  of  the 
world. 

Transmigration  of  Souls. — There  is,  then,  a  soul,  a 
part  of  the  soul  of  Brahma,  in  every  being,  in  gods,  in 
men,  in  animals,  in  the  very  plants  and  stones.  But 
these  souls  pass  from  one  body  into  another ;  this  Is  the 
transmigration  of  souls.  When  a  man  dies,  his  soul  is 
tested ;  if  it  is  good,  it  passes  into  the  heaven  of  Indra 
there  to  enjoy  felicity;  if  it  is  bad,  it  falls  into  one  of 
the  twenty-eight  hells,  where  it  is  devoured  by  ravens, 
compelled  to  swallow  burning  cakes,  and  is  tormented 
by  demons.  But  souls  do  not  remain  forever  in 
heaven  or  in  the  hells ;  they  part  from  these  to  begin  a 
new  life  in  another  body.  The  good  soul  rises,  enter- 
ing the  body  of  a  saint,  perhaps  that  of  a  god ;  the  evil 
soul  descends,  taking  its  abode  in  some  impure  animal 
— in  a  dog,  an  ass,  even  in  a  plant.  In  this  new  state  it 
may  rise  or  fall.  And  this  journey  from  one  body  to 
another  continues  until  the  soul  by  degrees  comes  to 
the  highest  sphere.  From  lowest  to  highest  in  the 
scale,  say  the  Brahmans,  twenty-four  millions  of  years 


56  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

elapse.  At  last  perfect,  the  soul  returns  to  the  level 
of  Brahma  from  which  it  descends  and  is  absorbed 
into  it. 

Character  of  this  Religion — The  religion  of  the 
Aryans,  simple  and  happy,  was  that  of  a  young  and 
vigorous  people.  This  is  complicated  and  barren;  it 
takes  shape  among  men  who  are  not  engaged  in  prac- 
tical life;  it  is  enervated  by  the  heat  and  vexations  of 
life. 

Rites. — The  practice  of  the  religion  is  much  more 
complicated.  Hymns  and  sacrifices  are  still  offered  to 
the  gods,  but  the  Brahmans  have  gradually  invented 
thousands  of  minute  customs  so  that  one's  life  is  com- 
pletely engaged  with  them.  For  all  the  ceremonies  of 
the  religious  life  there  are  prayers,  offerings,  vows, 
libations,  ablutions.  Some  of  the  religious  require- 
ments attach  themselves  to  dress,  ornaments,  etiquette, 
drinking,  eating,  mode  of  walking,  of  lying  down,  of 
sleeping,  of  dressing,  of  undressing,  of  bathing.  It  is 
ordered :  "That  a  Brahman  shall  not  step  over  a  rope  to 
which  a  calf  is  attached;  that  he  shall  not  run  when 
it  rains;  that  he  shall  not  drink  water  in  the  hollow 
of  his  hand;  that  he  shall  not  scratch  his  head  with 
both  his  hands.  The  man  who  breaks  clods  of  earth, 
who  cuts  grass  with  his  nails  or  who  bites  his  nails  is, 
like  the  outcast,  speedily  hurried  to  his  doom."  An 
animal  must  not  be  killed,  for  a  human  soul  may  per- 
haps be  dwelling  in  the  body;  one  must  not  eat  it  on 
penalty  of  being  devoured  in  another  life  by  the  animals 
which  one  has  eaten. 

All  these  rites  have  a  magical  virtue;  he  who  ob- 
serves them  all  is  a  saint ;  he  who  neglects  any  of  them 


THE   ARYANS    OF    INDIA  57 

is  impious  and  destined  to  pass  into  the  body  of  an 
animal. 

Purity. — The  principal  duty  is  keeping  one's  self 
pure;  for  every  stain  is  a  sin  and  opens  one  to  the  at- 
tack of  evil  spirits.  But  the  Brahmans  are  very  scrupu- 
lous concerning  purity:  men  outside  of  the  castes, 
many  animals,  the  soil,  even  the  utensils  which  one 
uses  are  so  many  impure  things ;  whoever  touches  these 
is  polluted  and  must  at  once  purify  himself.  Life  is 
consumed  in  purifications. 

Penances. — For  every  defect  in  the  rites,  a  penance 
is  necessary,  often  a  terrible  one.  He  who  involun- 
tarily kills  a  cow  must  clothe  himself  in  its  skin,  and 
for  three  months,  day  and  night,  follow  and  tend  a 
herd  of  cows.  Whoever  has  drunk  of  arrack^  must 
swallow  a  boiling  liquid  which  burns  the  internal 
organs  until  death  results. 

The  Monks. — To  escape  so  many  dangers  and  main- 
tain purity,  it  is  better  to  leave  the  world.  Often  a 
Brahman  when  he  has  attained  to  a  considerable  age 
withdraws  to  the  desert,  fasts,  watches,  refrains  from 
speech,  exposes  himself  naked  to  the  rain,  holds  him- 
self erect  between  four  fires  under  the  burning  sun. 
After  some  years,  the  solitary  becomes  "penitent" ;  then 
his  only  subsistence  is  from  almsgiving ;  for  whole  days 
he  lifts  an  arm  in  the  air  uttering  not  a  word,  holding 
his  breath ;  or  perchance,  he  gashes  himself  with  razor- 
blades  ;  or  he  may  even  keep  his  thumbs  closed  until  the 
nails  pierce  the  hands.  By  these  mortifications  he 
destroys  passion,  releases  himself  from  this  life,  and  by 
contemplation  rises  to  Brahma.  And  yet,  this  way  of 
*  A  spirituous  liquor  made  by  the  natives. — Ed. 


58  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

salvation  is  'open  only  to  the  Brahman;  and  even  he 
has  the  right  to  withdraw  to  the  desert  only  in  old  age, 
after  having  studied  the  Vedas  all  his  life,  practised  all 
the  rites,  and  established  a  family. 


BUDDHISM 

Buddha. — Millions  of  men  who  were  not  Brahmans, 
suffered  by  this  life  of  minutiae  and  anguish.  A  man 
then  appeared  who  brought  a  doctrine  of  deliverance. 
He  was  not  a  Brahman,  but  of  the  caste  of  the  Kcha- 
trias,  son  of  a  king  of  the  north.  To  the  age  of 
twenty-nine  he  had  lived  in  the  palace  of  his  father. 
One  day  he  met  an  old  man  with  bald  head,  of  wrinkled 
features,  and  trembling  limbs ;  a  second  time  he  met  an 
incurable  invalid,  covered  with  ulcers,  without  a  home ; 
again  he  fell  in  with  a  decaying  corpse  devoured  by 
worms.  And  so,  thought  he,  youth,  health,  and  life 
are  nothing  for  they  offer  no  resistance  to  old  age,  to 
sickness,  and  to  death.  He  had  compassion  on  men 
and  sought  a  remedy.  Then  he  met  a  religious  mendi- 
cant with  grave  and  dignified  air ;  following  his  exam- 
ple he  decided  to  renounce  the  world.  These  four 
meetings  had  determined  his  calling. 

Buddha  fled  to  the  desert,  lived  seven  years  in  peni- 
tence, undergoing  hunger,  thirst,  and  rain.  These 
mortifications  gave  him  no  repose.  He  ate,  became 
strong,  and  found  the  truth.  Then  he  reentered  the 
world  to  preach  it;  he  made  disciples  in  crowds  who 
called  him  Buddha  (the  scholar)  ;  and  when  he  died 
after  forty-five  years  of  preaching.  Buddhism  was 
established. 


THE    ARYANS    OF    INDIA  59 

Nirvana. — To  live  is  to  be  unhappy,  taught  Buddha. 
Every  man  suffers  because  he  desires  the  goods  of  this 
world,  youth,  health,  life,  and  cannot  keep  them.  All 
life  is  a  suffering;  all  suffering  is  born  of  desire.  To 
suppress  suffering,  it  is  necessary  to  root  out  desire ;  to 
destroy  it  one  must  cease  from  wishing  to  live,  "eman- 
cipate one's  self  from  the  thirst  of  being."  The  wise 
man  is  he  who  casts  aside  everything  that  attaches  to 
this  life  and  makes  it  unhappy.  One  must  cease  suc- 
cessively from  feeling,  wishing,  thinking.  Then, 
freed  from  passion,  volition,  even  from  reflection,  he 
no  longer  suffers,  and  can,  after  his  death,  come  to  the 
supreme  good,  which  consists  in  being  delivered  from 
all  life  and  from  all  suffering.  The  aim  of  the  wise 
man  is  the  annihilation  of  personality:  the  Buddhists 
call  it  Nirvana. 

Charity. — The  Brahmans  also  considered  life  as  a 
place  of  suffering  and  annihilation  as  felicity.  Buddha 
came  not  with  a  new  doctrine,  but  with  new  sentiments. 

The  religion  of  the  Brahmans  was  egoistic.  Buddha 
had  compassion  on  men,  he  loved  them,  and  preached 
love  to  his  disciples.  It  was  just  this  word  of  sym- 
pathy of  which  despairing  souls  were  in  need.  He 
bade  to  love  even  those  who  do  us  ill.  Purna,  one  of 
his  disciples,  went  forth  to  preach  to  the  barbarians. 
Buddha  said  to  him  to  try  him,  "There  are  cruel,  pas- 
sionate, furious  men ;  if  they  address  angry  words  to 
you,  what  w^ould  you  think?"  "If  they  addressed 
angry  words  to  me,"  said  Purna,  "I  should  think  these 
are  good  men,  these  are  gentle  men,  these  men  who 
attack  me  with  wicked  words  but  who  strike  me  neither 
with  the  hand  nor  with  stones."     "But  if  they  strike 


60  ANCIENT    CIVILIZATION 

you,  what  would  you  think?"  "I  should  think  that 
those  were  good  men  who  did  not  strike  me  with  their 
staves  or  with  their  swords."  "But  if  they  did  strike 
you  with  staff  and  sword,  what  would  you  think  then  ?" 
"That  those  are  good  men  who  strike  me  with  staff  and 
sword,  but  do  not  take  my  life."  "But  if  they  should 
take  your  life?"  "I  should  think  them  good  men  who 
delivered  me  with  so  little  pain  from  this  body  filled  as 
it  is  with  pollution."  "Well,  well,  Purna !  You  may 
dwell  in  the  country  of  the  barbarians.  Go,  proceed 
on  the  way  to  complete  Nirvana  and  bring  others  to 
the  same  goal." 

Fraternity — The  Brahmans,  proud  of  their  caste, 
assert  that  they  are  purer  than  the  others.  Buddha 
loves  all  men  equally,  he  calls  all  to  salvation  even  the 
pariahs,  even  the  barbarians — all  he  declares  are  equal. 
"The  Brahman,"  said  he,  "just  like  the  pariah,  is  born 
of  woman ;  why  should  he  be  noble  and  the  other  vile?" 
He  receives  as  disciples  street-sweepers,  beggars,  crip- 
ples, girls  who  sleep  on  dung-hills,  even  murderers  and 
thieves;  he  fears  no  contamination  in  touching  them. 
He  preaches  to  them  in  the  street  in  language  simple 
with  parables. 

Tolerance. — The  Brahmans  passed  their  lives  in  the 
practice  of  minute  rites,  regarding  as  criminal  whoever 
did  not  observe  them.  Buddha  demanded  neither 
rites  nor  exertions.  To  secure  salvation  it  was  enough 
to  be  charitable,  chaste,  and  beneficent.  "Benevo- 
lence," says  he,  "is  the  first  of  virtues.  Doing  a  little 
good  avails  more  than  the  fulfilment  of  the  most  ardu- 
ous religious  tasks.  The  perfect  man  is  nothing  unless 
he  diffuses  himself  in  benefits  over  creatures,  unless  he 


THE   ARYANS   OF   INDIA  61 

comforts  the  afflicted.  My  doctrine  is  a  doctrine  of 
mercy;  this  is  why  the  fortunate  in  the  world  find  it 
difficult." 

Later  History  of  Buddhism — Thus  was  established 
about  500  years  before  Christ  a  religion  of  an  entirely 
new  sort.  It  is  a  religion  without  a  god  and  without 
rites ;  it  ordains  only  that  one  shall  love  his  neighbor 
and  become  better;  annihilation  is  offered  as  supreme 
recompense.  But,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of 
the  world,  it  preaches  self-renunciation,  the  love  of 
others,  equality  of  mankind,  charity  and  tolerance. 
The  Brahmans  made  bitter  war  upon  it  and  extirpated 
it  in  India.  Missionaries  carried  it  to  the  barbarians 
in  Ceylon,  in  Indo-China,  Thibet,  China,  and  Japan. 
It  is  today  the  religion  of  about  500,000,000^  people. 

Changes  in  Buddhism. — During  these  twenty  cen- 
turies Buddhism  has  undergone  change.  Buddha  had 
himself  formed  communities  of  monks.  Those  who 
entered  these  renounced  their  family,  took  the  vow  of 
poverty  and  chastity ;  they  had  to  wear  filthy  rags  and 
beg  their  living.  These  religious  rapidly  multiplied; 
they  founded  convents  in  all  Eastern  Asia,  gathered 
in  councils  to  fix  the  doctrine,  proclaimed  dogmas  and 
rules.  As  they  became  powerful  they,  like  the  Brah- 
mans, came  to  esteem  themselves  as  above  the  rest  of 
the  faithful.  "The  layman,"  they  said,  "ought  to  sup- 
port the  religious  and  consider  himself  much  honored 
that  the  holy  man  accepts  his  offering.  It  is  more  com- 
mendable to  feed  one  religious  than  many  thousands 
of  laymen."  In  Thibet  the  religious,  men  and  women 
together,  constitute  a  fifth  of  the  entire  population,  and 
*  A  high  estimate. — Ed. 


62  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

their  head,  the  Grand  Lama,  is  venerated  as  an  in- 
carnation of  God. 

At  the  same  time  that  they  transformed  themselves 
into  masters,  the  Buddhist  rehgious  constructed  a  com- 
phcated  theology,  full  of  fantastic  figures.  They  say 
there  is  an  infinite  number  of  worlds.  If  one  sur- 
rounded with  a  wall  a  space  capable  of  holding  100,000 
times  ten  millions  of  those  worlds,  if  this  wall  were 
raised  to  heaven,  and  if  the  whole  space  were  filled  with 
grains  of  mustard,  the  number  of  the  grains  would  not 
even  then  equal  one-half  the  number  of  worlds  which 
occupy  but  one  division  of  heaven.  All  these  worlds 
are  full  of  creatures,  gods,  men,  beasts,  demons,  who 
are  born  and  who  die.  The  universe  itself  is  anni- 
hilated and  another  takes  its  place.  The  duration  of 
each  universe  is  called  kalpa;  and  this  is  the  way  we 
obtain  an  impression  of  a  kalpa:  if  there  were  a  rock 
twelve  miles  in  height,  breadth,  and  length,  and  if 
once  in  a  century  it  were  only  touched  with  a  piece 
of  the  finest  linen,  this  rock  would  be  worn  and  re- 
duced to  the  size  of  a  kernel  of  mango  before  a  quarter 
of  a  kalpa  had  elapsed. 

Buddha  Transformed  into  a  God It  no  longer  satis- 
fied the  Buddhists  to  honor  their  founder  as  a  perfect 
man ;  they  made  him  a  god,  erecting  idols  to  him,  and 
offering  him  worship.  They  adored  also  the  saints, 
his  disciples;  pyramids  and  shrines  were  built  to  pre- 
serve their  bones,  their  teeth,  their  cloaks.  From 
every  quarter  the  faithful  came  to  venerate  the  impres- 
sion of  the  foot  of  Buddha. 

Mechanical  Prayer — Modern  Buddhists  regard 
prayer  as  a   magical   formula  which   acts  of   itself. 


THE   ARYANS   OF    INDIA  63 

They  spend  the  day  reciting  prayers  as  they  walk  or 
eat,  often  in  a  language  which  they  do  not  understand. 
They  have  invented  prayer-machines ;  these  are  revolv- 
ing cylinders  and  around  these  are  pasted  papers  on 
which  the  prayer  is  written ;  every  turn  of  the  cylinder 
counts  for  the  utterance  of  the  prayer  as  many  times 
as  it  is  written  on  the  papers. 

Amelioration  of  Manners. — And  yet  Buddhism  re- 
mains a  religion  of  peace  and  charity.  Wherever  it 
reigns,  kings  refrain  from  war,  and  even  from  the 
chase;  they  establish  hospitals,  caravansaries,  even 
asylums  for  animals.  Strangers,  even  Christian  mis- 
sionaries, are  hospitably  received;  they  permit  the 
women  to  go  out,  and  to  walk  without  veiling  them- 
selves; they  neither  fight  nor  quarrel.  At  Bangkok, 
a  city  of  400,000  souls,  hardly  more  than  one  murder 
a  year  is  known. 

Buddhism  has  enfeebled  the  intelligence  and  sweet- 
ened the  character.^ 

^  India  is  for  us  the  country  of  the  Vedas,  the  Brahmans,  and 
Buddha.  We  know  the  rehgion  of  the  Hindoos,  but  of  their 
political  history  we  are  ignorant. 


CHAPTER   VI 
THE  PERSIANS 

THE    RELIGION    OF    ZOROASTER 

Iran. — Between  the  Tigris  and  the  Indus,  the  Cas- 
pian Sea  and  the  Persian  Gulf  rises  the  land  of  Iran, 
five  times  as  great  as  France/  but  partly  sterile.  It 
is  composed  of  deserts  of  burning  sand  and  of  icy  pla- 
teaux cut  by  deep  and  wooded  valleys.  Mountains  sur- 
round it  preventing  the  escape  of  the  rivers  which  must 
lose  themselves  in  the  sands  or  in  the  salt  lakes.  The 
climate  is  harsh,  very  uneven,  torrid  in  summer,  frigid 
in  winter;  in  certain  quarters  one  passes  from  104° 
above  zero  to  40°  below,  from  the  cold  of  Siberia  to 
the  heat  of  Senegal.  Violent  winds  blow  which  "cut 
like  a  sword."  But  in  the  valleys  along  the  rivers  the 
soil  is  fertile.  Here  the  peach  and  cherry  are  indige- 
nous ;  the  country  is  a  land  of  fruits  and  pastures. 

The  Iranians — Aryan  tribes  inhabited  Iran.  Like 
all  the  Aryans,  they  were  a  race  of  shepherds,  but  well 
armed  and  warlike.  The  Iranians  fought  on  horse- 
back, drew  the  bow,  and,  to  protect  themselves  from 
the  biting  wind  of  their  country,  wore  garments  of 
skin  sewed  on  the  body. 

^  That  is,  of  about  the  same  area  as  that  part  of  the  United 
States  east  of  the  Mississippi,  with  Minnesota  and  Iowa.  Mod- 
ern Persia  is  not  two-thirds  of  this  area, — Ed. 

64 


THE   PERSIANS  65 

Zoroaster. — Like  the  ancient  Aryans,  they  first 
adored  the  forces  of  nature,  especially  the  sun 
(]\Iithra).  Between  die  tenth  and  seventh^  centuries 
before  our  era  their  religion  was  reformed  by  a  sage, 
Zarathustra  (Zoroaster) .  We  know  nothing  certainly 
about  him  except  his  name. 

The  Zend-Avesta. — Xo  writing  from  the  hand  of 
Zoroaster  is  preserved  to  us ;  but  his  doctrine,  reduced 
to  writing  long  after  his  death,  is  conserved  in  the 
Zend-Avesta  (law  and  reform),  the  sacred  books  of 
the  Persians.  It  w^as  a  compilation  written  in  an 
ancient  language  (the  Zend)  which  the  faithful  them- 
selves no  longer  understood.  It  was  divided  into 
twenty-one  books,  inscribed  on  12,000  cow  skins, 
bound  by  golden  cords.  The  Mohammedans  destroyed 
it  when  they  invaded  Persia.  But  some  Persian  fam- 
ilies, faithful  to  the  teaching  of  Zoroaster,  fled  into 
India.  Their  posterity,  whom  w^e  call  Parsees,  have 
there  maintained  the  old  religion.  An  entire  book  of 
the  Zend-Avesta  and  fragments  of  two  others  have 
been  found  among  them. 

Ormuzd  and  Ahriman — The  Zend-Avesta  is  the 
sacred  book  of  the  religion  of  Zoroaster.  According  to 
these  writings  Ahura  Mazda  (Ormuzd),  "the  omnis- 
cient sovereign,"  created  the  world.  He  is  addressed 
in  prayer  in  the  following  language:  "I  invoke  and 
celebrate  the  creator,  Ahura  Mazda,  luminous,  glori- 
ous, most  intelligent  and  beautiful,  eminent  in  purity, 
w^ho  possessest  the  good  knowledge,  source  of  joy,  who 
hast  created  us,  hast  fashioned  us,  and  hast  nourished 
us."  Since  he  is  perfect  in  his  goodness,  he  can  create 
*  Most  historians  place  Zoroaster  before  1000  B.C. — Ed. 


66  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

only  that  which  is  good.  Everything  bad  in  the  world 
has  been  created  by  an  evil  deity,  Angra  Manyou, 
(Ahriman),  the  ''spirit  of  anguish." 

Angels  and  Demons. — Over  against  Ormuzd,  the  god 
and  the  creator,  is  Ahriman,  wicked  and  destructive. 
Each  has  in  his  service  a  legion  of  spirits.  The  sol- 
diers of  Ormuzd  are  the  good  angels  (yazatas),  those 
of  Ahriman  the  evil  demons  (devs).  The  angels 
dwell  in  the  East  in  the  light  of  the  rising  sun;  the 
demons  in  the  West  in  the  shadows  of  the  darkness. 
The  two  armies  wage  incessant  warfare;  the  world  is 
their  battleground,  for  both  troops  are  omnipresent. 
Ormuzd  and  his  angels  seek  to  benefit  men,  to  make 
them  good  and  happy ;  Ahriman  and  his  demons  gnaw 
around  them  to  destroy  them,  to  make  them  unhappy 
and  wicked. 

Creatures  of  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman. — Everything 
good  on  the  earth  is  the  work  of  Ormuzd  and  works 
for  good;  the  sun  and  fire  that  dispel  the  night,  the 
stars,  fermented  drinks  that  seem  to  be  liquid  fire,  the 
water  that  satisfies  the  thirst  of  man,  the  cultivated 
fields  that  feed  him,  the  trees  that  shade  him,  domestic 
animals — especially  the  dog,^  the  birds  (because  they 
live  in  the  air),  among  all  these  the  cock  since  he 
announces  the  day.  On  the  other  hand  everything 
that  is  baneful  comes  from  Ahriman  and  tends  to  evil : 
the  night,  drought,  cold,  the  desert,  poisonous  plants, 
thorns,  beasts  of  prey,  serpents,  parasites  (mosquitoes, 
fleas,  bugs)    and   animals   that  live  in  dark  holes — 

*  "  I  created  the  dog,"  said  Ormuzd,  "with  a  delicate  scent  and 
strong  teeth,  attached  to  man,  biting  the  enemy  to  protect  the 
herds.  Thieves  and  wolves  come  not  near  the  sheep-fold  when  the 
dog  is  on  guard,  strong  in  voice  and  defending  the  flocks." 


THE    PERSIANS  67 

lizards,  scorpions,  toads,  rats,  ants.  Likewise  in  the 
moral  world  life,  purity,  truth,  work  are  good  things 
and  come  from  Ormuzd;  death,  filth,  falsehood,  idle- 
ness are  bad,  and  issue  from  Ahriman. 

Worship. — From  these  notions  proceed  worship  and 
morality.  Man  ought  to  adore  the  good  god^  and 
fight  for  him.  According  to  Herodotus,  "The  Per- 
sians are  not  accustomed  to  erect  statues,  temples,  or 
altars  to  their  gods ;  they  esteem  those  who  do  this  as 
lacking  in  sense  for  they  do  not  believe,  as  the  Greeks 
do,  that  the  gods  have  human  forms."-  Ormuzd  man- 
ifests himself  only  under  the  form  of  fire  or  the  sun. 
This  is  why  the  Persians  perform  their  worship  in  the 
open  air  on  the  mountains,  before  a  lighted  fire.  To 
worship  Ormuzd  they  sing  hymns  to  his  praise  and 
sacrifice  animals  in  his  honor. 

Morality — Alan  fights  for  Ormuzd  in  aiding  his  ef- 
forts and  in  overcoming  Ahriman's.  He  wars  against 
darkness  in  supplying  the  fire  with  dry  wood  and  per- 
fumes ;  against  the  desert  in  tilling  the  soil  and  in  build- 
ing houses ;  against  the  animals  of  Ahriman  in  killing 
serpents,  lizards,  parasites,  and  beasts  of  prey.  He 
battles  against  impurity  in  keeping  himself  clean.  In 
banishing  from  himself  everything  that  is  dead,  es- 
pecially the  nails  and  hair,  for  "where  hairs  and  clipped 
nails  are,  demons  and  unclean  animals  assemble."  He 
fights  against  falsehood  by  always  being  truthful. 
"The  Persians,"  says  Herodotus,'*^  "  consider  nothing 

^  Certain  Persian  heretics  of  our  day,  on  the  contrary,  adore 
only  the  evil  god,  for,  they  say,  the  principle  of  the  good  being 
in  itself  good  and  indulgent  does  not  require  appeasing.  They 
are  called  Yezidis  (worshippers  of  the  devil). 

2  Herod.,  i.,  131. 

M..  138. 


68  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

SO  shameful  as  lying,  and  after  falsehood  nothing  so 
shameful  as  contracting  debts,  for  he  who  has  debts 
necessarily  lies."  He  wars  against  death  by  marrying 
and  having  many  children.  "Terrible,"  says  the  Zend- 
Avesta,  ''are  the  houses  void  of  posterity." 

Funerals. — As  soon  as  a  man  is  dead  his  body  be- 
longs to  the  evil  spirit.  It  is  necessary,  then,  to  re- 
move it  from  the  house.  But  it  ought  not  to  be 
burned,  for  in  this  way  the  fire  would  be  polluted; 
it  should  not  be  buried,  for  so  is  the  soil  defiled ;  nor 
is  it  to  be  drowned,  and  thus  contaminate  the  water. 
These  dispositions  of  the  corpse  would  bring  perma- 
nent pollution.  The  Persians  resorted  to  a  different 
method.  The  body  with  face  toward  the  sun  was 
exposed  in  an  elevated  place  and  left  uncovered,  se- 
curely fixed  with  stones ;  the  bearers  then  withdrew  to 
escape  the  demons,  for  they  assemble  ''in  the  places  of 
sepulture,  where  reside  sickness,  fever,  filth,  cold,  and 
gray  hairs."  Dogs  and  birds,  pure  animals,  then 
come  to  purify  the  body  by  devouring  it. 

Destiny  of  the  Soul. — The  soul  of  the  dead  separates 
itself  from  the  body.  In  the  third  .night  after  death 
it  is  conducted  over  the  "Bridge  of  Assembling" 
(Schinvat)  which  leads  to  the  paradise  above  the  gulf 
of  inferno.  There  Ormuzd  questions  it  on  its  past 
life.  If  it  has  practised  the  good,  the  pure  spirits  and 
the  spirits  of  dogs  support  it  and  aid  it  in  crossing  the 
bridge  and  give  it  entrance  into  the  abode  of  the  blest ; 
the  demons  flee,  for  they  cannot  bear  the  odor  of  vir- 
tuous spirits.  The  soul  of  the  wicked,  on  the  other 
hand,  comes  to  the  dread  bridge,  and  reeling,  with  no 
one  to  support  it,  is  dragged  by  demons  to  hell,  is 


THE    PERSIANS  69 

seized  by  the  evil  spirit  and  chained  in  the  abyss  of 
darkness. 

Character  of  Mazdeism. — This  relis-ion  oris:inated 
in  a  country  of  violent  contrasts,  luxuriant  valleys 
side  by  side  with  barren  steppes,  cool  oases  with  burn- 
ing deserts,  cultivated  fields  and  stretches  of  sand, 
where  the  forces  of  nature  seem  engaged  in  an  eternal 
warfare.  This  combat  which  the  Iranian  saw  around 
him  he  assumed  to  be  the  law  of  the  universe.  Thus 
a  religion  of  great  purity  was  developed,  which  urged 
man  to  work  and  to  virtue ;  but  at  the  same  time  issued 
a  belief  in  the  devil  and  in  demons  which  was  to 
propagate  itself  in  the  w^est  and  torment  all  the  peo- 
ples of  Europe. 

THE  PERSIAN  EMPIRE 

The  Modes. — ]\Iany  were  the  tribes  dwelling  in  Iran ; 
two  of  these  have  become  noted  in  history — the  Medes 
and  the  Persians.  The  Medes  at  the  west,  nearer  the 
Assyrians,  destroy-ed  Nineveh  and  its  empire  (625). 
But  soon  they  soft£ned  their  manners,  taking  the  flow- 
ing robes,  the  indolent  life,  the  superstitious  religion  of 
the  degenerate  Assyrians.  They  at  last  were  con- 
fused with  them. 

The  Persians. — The  Persians  to  the  east  preserved 
their  manners,  their. religion,  and  their  vigor.  *'For 
twenty  years,"  saya  Herodotus,  "the  Persians  teach 
their  children  but  three  things — to  mount  a  horse,  to 
draw  the  bow,  and  to  tell  the  truth." 

Cyrus. — About  550  Cyrus,  their  chief,  overthrew  the 
king  of  the  ]\Iedes,  reunited  all  the  peoples  of  Iran,  and 


70  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

then  conquered  Lydia,  Babylon,  and  all  Asia  Minor. 
Herodotus  recounts  in  detail  a  legend  which  became 
attached  to  this  prince.  Cyrus  himself  in  an  inscrip- 
tion says  of  himself,  "I  am  Cyrus,  king  of  the  legions, 
great  king,  mighty  king,  king  of  Babylon,  king  of 
Sumir  and  Akkad,  king  of  the  four  regions,  son  of 
Cambyses,  great  king  of  Susiana,  grand-son  of  Cyrus, 
king  of  Susiana." 

^  The  Inscription  of  Behistun. — The  eldest  son  of 
Cyrus,  Cambyses,  put  to  death  his  brother  Smerdis 
and  conquered  Egypt.  What  occurred  afterward  is 
known  to  us  from  an  inscription.  Today  one  may 
see  on  the  frontier  of  Persia,  in  the  midst  of  a  plain, 
an  enormous  rock,  cut  perpendicularly,  about  1,500 
feet  high,  the  rock  of  Behistun.  A  bas-relief  carved 
on  the  rock  represents  a  crowned  king,  with  left  hand 
on  a  bow ;  he  tramples  on  one  captive  while  nine  other 
prisoners  are  presented  before  him  in  chains.  An 
inscription  in  three  languages  relates  the  life  of  the 
king:  ^'Darius  the  king  declares.  This  is  what  I  did 
before  I  became  king.  Cambyses,  son  of  Cyrus,  of  our 
race,  reigned  here  before  me.  This  Cambyses  had  a 
brother  Smerdis,  of  the  same  father  and  the  same 
mother.  One  day  Cambyses  killed  Smerdis.  When 
Cambyses  had  killed  Smerdis  the  people  were  ignorant 
that  Smerdis  was  dead.  After  this  Cambyses  made 
an  expedition  to  Egypt  and  while  he  was  there  the 
people  became  rebellious;  falsehood  was  then  rife  in 
the  country,  in  Persia,  in  Media  and  the  other  prov- 
inces. There  was  at  that  time  a  magus  named  Gau- 
mata;  he  deceived  the  people  by  saying  that  he  was 
Smerdis,  the  son  of  Cyrus.     Then  the  whole  people 


THE   PERSIANS  71 

rose  in  revolt,  forsook  Cambyses  and  went  over  to  the 
pretender.  After  this  Cambyses  died  from  a  wound 
inflicted  by  himself. 

''After  Gaumata  had  drawn  away  Persia,  Media, 
and  the  other  countries  from  Cambyses,  he  followed 
out  his  purpose :  he  became  king.  The  people  feared 
him  on  account  of  his  cruelty :  he  would  have  killed  the 
people  so  that  no  one  might  learn  that  he  was  not 
Smerdis,  the  son  of  Cyrus.  Darius  the  king  declares 
there  was  not  a  man  in  all  Persia  or  in  Media  who 
dared  to  snatch  the  crown  from  this  Gaumata,  the 
magus.  Then  I  presented  myself,  I  prayed  Ormuzd. 
Ormuzd  accorded  me  his  protection.  .  .  .  Accom- 
panied by  faithful  men  I  killed  this  Gaumata  and  his 
principal  accomplices.  By  the  will  of  Ormuzd  I  be- 
came king.  The  empire  which  had  been  stolen  from 
our  race  I  restored  to  it.  The  altars  that  Gaumata, 
the  magus,  had  thrown  down  I  rebuilt  to  the  deliv- 
erance of  the  people;  I  received  the  chants  and  the 
sacred  ceremonials."  Having  overturned  the  usurper, 
Darius  had  to  make  war  on  many  of  the  revolting 
princes.  *'I  have,"  said  he,  "won  nineteen  battles 
and  overcome  nine  kings." 

The  Persian  Empire. — Darius  then  subjected  the 
peoples  in  revolt  and  reestablished  the  empire  of  the 
Persians.  He  enlarged  it  also  by  conquering  Thrace 
and  a  province  of  India.  This  empire  reunited  all 
the  peoples  of  the  Orient :  Medes  and  Persians,  Assyri- 
ans, Chaldeans,  Jews,  Phoenicians,  Syrians,  Lydians, 
Egy^ptians,  Indians ;  it  covered  all  the  lands  from  the 
Danube  on  the  west  to  the  Indus  on  the  east,  from 
the  Caspian  Sea  on  the  north  to  the  cataracts  of  the 


72  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Nile  on  the  south.  It  was  the  greatest  empire  up  to 
this  time.  One  tribe  of  mountaineers,  the  last  to 
come,  thus  received  the  heritage  of  all  the  empires  of 
Asia. 

The  Satrapies — Oriental  kings  seldom  concerned 
themselves  with  their  subjects  more  than  to  draw 
money  from  them,  levy  soldiers,  and  collect  presents; 
they  never  interfered  in  their  local  affairs.  Darius, 
like  the  rest,  left  each  of  the  peoples  of  his  empire  to 
administer  itself  according  to  its  own  taste,  to  keep 
its  language,  its  religion,  its  law^s,  often  its  ancient 
princes.  But  he  took  care  to  regulate  the  taxes  which 
his  subjects  paid  him.  He  divided  all  the  empire  into 
twenty^  districts  called  satrapies.  There  were  in  the 
same  satrapy  peoples  who  differed  much  in  language, 
customs,  and  beliefs;  but  each  satrapy  was  to  pay  a 
fixed  annual  tribute,  partly  in  gold  and  silver,  partly  in 
natural  products  (wheat,  horses,  ivory).  The  satrap, 
or  governor,  had  the  tribute  collected  and  sent  it  to 
the  king. 

Revenues  of  the  Empire. — The  total  revenue  of  the 
king  amounted  to  sixteen  millions  of  dollars  and  this 
money  was  paid  by  weight.  This  sum  was  in  addition 
to  the  tributes  in  kind.  These  sixteen  millions  of  dol- 
lars, if  we  estimate  them  by  the  value  of  the  metals  at 
this  time,  would  be  equivalent  to  one  hundred  and 
twenty  millions  in  our  day.  With  this  sum  the  king 
supported  his  satraps,  his  army,  his  domestic  servants 
and  an  extravagant  court;  there  still  remained  to  him 
every  year  enormous  ingots  of  metal  which  accumu- 

^  Herodotus  mentions  20,  but  we  find  as  many  as  31  enu- 
merated in  the  inscriptions. 


THE    PERSIANS  73 

lated  in  his  treasuries.  The  king  of  Persia,  like  all  the 
Orientals,  exercised  his  vanity  in  possessing  an  im- 
mense treasure. 

The  Great  King. — Xo  king  had  ever  been  so  power- 
ful and  rich.  The  Greeks  called  the  Persian  king  The 
Great  King.  Like  all  the  monarchs  of  the  East,  the 
king  had  absolute  sway  over  all  his  subjects,  over 
the  Persians  as  well  as  over  tributary  peoples.  From 
Herodotus  one  can  see  how  Cambyses  treated  the  great 
lords  at  his  court.  "What  do  the  Persians  think  of 
me?"  said  he  one  day  to  Prexaspes,  whose  son  was  his 
cupbearer.  "Master,  they  load  you  with  praises,  but 
they  believe  that  you  have  a  little  too  strong  desire  for 
wine."  "Learn,"  said  Cambyses  in  anger,  "whether 
the  Persians  speak  the  truth.  If  I  strike  in  the  middle 
of  the  heart  of  your  son  who  is  standing  in  the  vesti- 
bule, that  will  show  that  the  Persians  do  not  know 
what  they  say."  He  drew  his  bow  and  struck  the  son 
of  Prexaspes.  The  youth  fell ;  Cambyses  had  the 
body  opened  to  see  where  the  shot  had  taken  effect. 
The  arrow  was  found  in  the  middle  of  the  heart. 
The  prince,  full  of  joy  said  in  derision  to  the  father 
of  the  young  man,  "You  see  that  it  is  the  Persians 
who  are  out  of  their  senses;  tell  me  if  you  have  seen 
anybody  strike  the  mark  with  so  great  accuracy." 
"Master,"  replied  Prexaspes,  "I  do  not  believe  that 
even  a  god  could  shoot  so  surely."^ 

Services  Rendered  by  the  Persians The  peoples  of 

Asia  have  always  paid  tribute  to  conquerors  and  given 
allegiance  to   despots.     The   Persians,   at   least,    ren- 

*  Herod.,  iii.,  34,  35.  Compare  also  iii.,  78,  79;  and  the  book 
of  Esther. 


74  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

dered  them  a  great  service :  in  subjecting  all  these  peo- 
ples to  one  master  they  prevented  them  from  fighting 
among  themselves.  Under  their  domination  v^e  do 
not  see  a  ceaseless  burning  of  cities,  devastation  of 
fields,  massacre  or  wholesale  enslavement  of  inhab- 
itants.    It  was  a  period  of  peace. 

Susa  and  Persepolis. — The  kings  of  the  Medes  and 
Persians,  following  the  example  of  the  lords  of  Assy- 
ria, had  palaces  built  for  them.  Those  best  known  to 
us  are  the  palaces  at  Susa  and  Persepolis.  The  ruins 
of  Susa  have  been  excavated  by  a  French  engineer/ 
who  has  discovered  sculptures,  capitals,  and  friezes  in 
enameled  bricks  which  give  evidence  of  an  advanced 
stage  of  art.  The  palace  of  Persepolis  has  left  ruins 
of  considerable  mass.  The  rock  of  the  hill  had  been 
fashioned  into  an  enormous  platform  on  which  the 
palace  was  built.  The  approach  to  it  was  by  a  gently 
rising  staircase  so  broad  that  ten  horsemen  could 
ascend  riding  side  by  side. 

Persian  Architecture. — Persian  architects  had  cop- 
ied the  palaces  of  the  Assyrians.  At  Persepolis  and 
Susa,  as  in  Assyria,  are  flat-roofed  edifices  with  ter- 
races, gates  guarded  by  monsters  carved  in  stone,  bas- 
reliefs  and  enameled  bricks,  representing  hunting- 
scenes  and  ceremonies.  At  three  points,  however,  the 
Persians  improved  on  their  models  : 

(i)  They  used  marble  instead  of  brick;  (2)  they 
made  in  the  halls  painted  floors  of  wood;  (3)  they 
erected  eight  columns  in  the  form  of  trunks  of  trees, 
the  slenderest  that  we  know,  twelve  times  as  high  as 
they  were  thick. 

*  M.  Dieulafoi. 


THE   PERSIANS  75 

Thus  their  architecture  is  more  elegant  and  lighter 
than  that  of  Assyria. 

The  Persians  had  made  little  progress  in  the  arts. 
But  they  seem  to  have  been  the  most  honest,  the  sanest, 
and  the  bravest  people  of  the  time.  For  two  centuries 
they  exercised  in  Asia  a  sovereignty  the  least  cruel  and 
the  least  unjust  that  it  had  ever  known. 


CHAPTER   VII 
THE  PHCENICIANS 

THE  PHOENICIAN  PEOPLE 

The  Land. — Phoenicia  is  the  narrow  strip  of  country 
one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  long  by  twenty-four  to 
thirty  wide,  shut  in  between  the  sea  of  Syria  and  the 
high  range  of  Lebanon.  It  is  a  succession  of  narrow 
valleys  and  ravines  confined  by  abrupt  hills  which  de- 
scend towards  the  sea;  little  torrents  formed  by  the 
snows  or  rain-storms  course  through  these  in  the  early 
spring;  in  summer  no  water  remains  except  in  wells 
and  cisterns.  The  mountains  in  this  quarter  were 
always  covered  with  trees ;  at  the  summit  were  the  re- 
nowned cedars  of  Lebanon,  on  the  ridges,  pines  and 
cypresses;  while  lower  yet  palms  grew  even  to  the 
sea-shore.  In  the  valleys  flourished  the  olive,  the  vine, 
the  fig,  and  the  pomegranate. 

The  Cities. — At  intervals  along  the  rocky  coast 
promontories  or  islands  formed  natural  harbors.  On 
these  the  Phoenicians  had  founded  their  cities;  Tyre 
and  Arad  were  each  built  on  a  small  island.  The  peo- 
ple housed  themselves  in  dwellings  six  to  eight  stories 
in  height.  Fresh  water  was  ferried  over  in  ships. 
The  other  cities,  Gebel,  Beirut,  and  Sidon  arose  on  the 
mainland.  The  soil  was  inadequate  to  support  these 
swarms  of  men,  and  so  the  Phoenicians  were  before  all 
else  seamen  and  traders. 

76 


THE    PHCENICIANS  77 

Phoenician  Ruins — Not  a  book  of  the  Phoenicians 
has  come  down  to  us,  not  even  their  sacred  book.  The 
sites  of  their  cities  have  been  excavated.  But,  in  the 
words  of  the  scholar  sent  to  do  this  work,  "Ruins  are 
not  preserved,  especially  in  countries  where  people  are 
not  occupied  with  them,"  and  the  Syrians  are  not  much 
occupied  with  ruins.  They  have  violated  the  tombs 
to  remove  the  jewels  of  the  dead,  have  demolished 
edifices  to  secure  stone  for  building  purposes,  and  Mus- 
sulman hatred  of  chiseled  figures  has  shattered  the 
sculptures.^  Very  little  is  found  beyond  broken  mar- 
ble, cisterns,  wine-presses  cut  in  the  rock  and  some 
sarcophagi  hewn  in  rock.  All  this  debris  gives  us 
little  information  and  we  know  very  little  more  of  the 
Phoenicians  than  Greek  writers  and  Jewish  prophets 
have  taught  us. 

Political  Organization  of  the  Phoenicians. — The 
Phoenicians  never  built  an  empire.  Each  city  had  its 
little  independent  territory,  its  assemblies,  its  king,  and 
its  government.  For  general  state  business  each  city 
sent  delegates  to  Tyre,  which  from  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury B.C.  was  the  principal  city  of  Phoenicia.  The 
Phoenicians  were  not  a  military  people,  and  so  sub- 
mitted themselves  to  all  the  conquerors — Egyptians, 
Assyrians,  Babylonians,  Persians.  They  fulfilled  all 
their  obligations  to  them  in  paying  tribute. 

Tyre. — From  the  thirteenth  century  Tyre  was  the 
most  notable  of  the  cities.  Its  island  becoming  too 
small  to  contain  it,  a  new  city  was  built  on  the  coast 

^  Renan  ("Mission  de  Phenicie,"  p.  8i8)  says,  "I  noticed  at  Tri- 
polis  a  sarcophagus  serving  as  a  public  fountain  and  the  sculptured 
face  of  it  was  turned  to  the  wall.  I  was  told  that  a  governor  had 
placed  it  thus  so  as  not  to  provide  distractions  for  the  inhabitants. ' ' 


78  ANCIENT    CIVILIZATION 

Opposite.  Tyrian  merchants  had  founded  colonies  in 
every  part  of  the  Mediterranean,  receiving  silver  from 
the  mines  of  Spain  and  commodities  from  the  entire 
ancient  world.  The  prophet  Isaiah^  calls  these  traders 
princes ;  EzekieP  describes  the  caravans  which  came  to 
them  from  all  quarters.  It  is  Hiram,  a  king  of  Tyre, 
from  whom  Solomon  asked  workmen  to  build  his 
palace  and  temple  at  Jerusalem. 

Carthage. — A  colony  of  Tyre  surpassed  even  her  in 
power.  In  the  ninth  century  some  Tyrians,  exiled  by 
a  revolution,  founded  on  the  shore  of  Africa  near 
Tunis  the  city  of  Carthage.  A  woman  led  them, 
Elissar,  whom  we  call  Dido  (the  fugitive).  The  in- 
habitants of  the  country,  says  the  legend,  were  willing 
to  sell  her  only  as  much  land  as  could  be  covered  by  a 
bull's  hide ;  but  she  cut  the  hide  in  strips  so  narrow  that 
it  enclosed  a  wide  territory ;  and  there  she  constructed 
a  citadel.  Situated  at  the  centre  of  the  Mediterranean, 
provided  with  two  harbors,  Carthage  flourished,  sent 
out  colonies  in  turn,  made  conquests,  and  at  last  came 
to  reign  over  all  the  coasts  of  Africa,  Spain,  and  Sar- 
dinia. Everywhere  she  had  agencies  for  her  com- 
merce and  subjects  who  paid  her  tribute. 

The  Carthaginian  Army. — To  protect  her  colonies 
from  the  natives,  to  hold  her  subjects  in  check  who 
were  always  ready  to  revolt,  a  strong  army  was  nec- 
essary. But  the  life  of  a  Carthaginian  was  too  val- 
uable to  risk  it  without  necessity.  Carthage  preferred 
to  pay  mercenary  soldiers,  recruiting  them  among  the 
barbarians  of  her  empire  and  among  the  adventurers 

j  *  See  ch.  xxiii. 

'  2  See  chs.  xxvi.,  xxvii.,  xxviii. 


THE    PHCENICIANS  79 

of  all  countries.  Her  army  was  a  bizarre  aggregation 
in  which  all  languages  were  spoken,  all  religions  prac- 
tised, and  in  which  every  soldier  wore  different  arms 
and  costume.  There  were  seen  Numidians  clothed  in 
lion  skins  which  served  them  as  couch,  mounted  bare- 
back on  small  fleet  horses,  and  drawing  the  bow  with 
horse  at  full  gallop;  Libyans  with  black  skins,  armed 
with  pikes;  Iberians  from  Spain  in  white  garments 
adorned  with  red,  armed  with  a  long  pointed  sword ; 
Gauls,  naked  to  the  girdle,  bearing  enormous  shields 
and  a  rounded  sword  which  they  held  in  both  hands; 
natives  of  the  Balearic  Islands,  trained  from  infancy 
to  sling  with  stones  or  balls  of  lead.  The  generals 
were  Carthaginians;  the  government  distrusted  them, 
watched  them  closely,  and  when  they  were  defeated, 
had  them  crucified. 

The  Carthaginians — Carthage  had  two  kings,  but 
the  senate  was  the  real  power,  being  composed  of  the 
richest  merchants  of  the  city.  And  so  every  state 
question  for  this  government  became  a  matter  of  com- 
merce. The  Carthaginians  were  hated  by  all  other 
peoples,  who  found  them  cruel,  greedy,  and  faithless. 
And  yet,  since  they  had  a  good  fleet,  had  money  to 
purchase  soldiers,  and  possessed  an  energetic  govern- 
ment, they  succeeded  in  the  midst  of  barbarous  and 
divided  peoples  in  maintaining  their  empire  over  the 
western  Mediterranean  for  300  years  (from  the  sixth 
to  the  third  century  B.C.). 

The  Phoenician  Religion. — The  Phoenicians  and  the 
Carthaginians  had  a  religion  similar  to  that  of  the 
Chaldeans.  The  male  god,  Baal,  is  a  sun-god;  for 
the  sun  and  the  moon  are  in  the  eyes  of  the  Phoenicians 


80  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

the  great  forces  which  create  and  which  destroy.  Each 
of  the  cities  of  Phoenicia  has  therefore  its  divine  pair : 
at  Sidon  it  is  Baal  Sidon  (the  sun)  and  Astoreth  (the 
moon);  at  Gebel,  Baal  Tammouz  and  Baaleth;  at 
Carthage,  Baal-Hamon,  and  Tanith.  But  the  same 
god  changes  his  name  according  as  he  is  conceived  as 
creator  or  destroyer;  thus  Baal  as  destroyer  is  wor- 
shipped at  Carthage  under  the  name  of  Moloch. 
These  gods,  represented  by  idols,  have  their  temples, 
altars,  and  priests.  As  creators  they  are  honored  with 
orgies,  with  tumultuous  feasts;  as  destroyers,  by 
human  victims.  Astoreth,  the  great  goddess  of  Sidon, 
whom  they  represented  by  the  crescent  of  the  moon 
and  the  dove,  had  her  cult  in  the  sacred  woods.  Baal 
Moloch  is  figured  at  Carthage  as  a  bronze  colossus 
with  arms  extended  and  lowered.  When  they  wished 
to  appease  him  they  laid  children  in  his  hands  who  fell 
at  once  into  a  pit  of  fire.  During  the  siege  of  Carthage 
by  Agathocles  the  principal  men  of  the  city  sacrificed 
to  Moloch  as  many  as  two  hundred  of  their  children. 
This  sensual  and  sanguinary  religion  inspired  other 
peoples  with  horror,  but  they  imitated  it.  The  Jews 
sacrificed  to  Baal  on  the  mountains ;  the  Greeks  adored 
Astarte  of  Sidon  under  the  name  of  Aphrodite,  and 
Baal  Melkhart  of  Tyre  under  the  name  of  Herakles. 

PHOENICIAN  COMMERCE 

Phoenician  Occupations. — Crowded  into  a  small  ter- 
ritory, the  Phoenicians  gained  their  livelihood  mainly 
from  commerce.  None  of  the  other  peoples  of  the 
East — the  Egyptians,  the  Chaldeans,  the  Assyrians, 


THE    PHOENICIANS  81 

nor  the  barbarian  tribes  of  the  West  ( Spaniards,  Gauls, 
ItaHans)  had  a  navy.  The  Phoenicians  alone  in  this 
time  dared  to  navigate.  They  were  the  commission 
merchants  of  the  old  world ;  they  went  to  every  people 
to  buy  their  merchandise  and  sold  them  in  exchange 
the  commodities  of  other  countries.  This  traffic  was 
by  caravan  with  the  East,  by  sea  with  the  West. 

Caravans. — On  land  the  Phoenicians  sent  caravans  in 
three  directions: 

I. — Towards  Arabia,  from  which  they  brought  gold, 
agate,  and  onyx,  incense  and  myrrh,  and  the  perfumes 
of  Arabia;  pearls,  spices,  ivory,  ebony,  ostrich  plumes 
and  apes  from  India. 

2. — Towards  Assyria,  whence  came  cotton  and 
linen  cloths,  asphalt,  precious  stones,  perfumery,  and 
silk  from  China. 

3. — Towards  the  Black  Sea,  where  they  went  to 
receive  horses,  slaves,  and  copper  vases  made  by  the 
mountaineers  of  the  Caucasus. 

Marine  Commerce. — For  their  sea  commerce  they 
built  ships  from  the  cedars  of  Lebanon  to  be  propelled 
by  oars  and  sails.  In  their  sailing  it  was  not  necessary 
to  remain  always  in  sight  of  the  coast,  for  they  knew 
how  to  direct  their  course  by  the  polar  star.  Bold 
mariners,  they  pushed  in  their  little  boats  to  the  mouth 
of  tlie  Mediterranean:  they  ventured  even  to  pass 
through  the  strait  of  Gibraltar  or,  as  the  ancients  called 
it,  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  and  took  the  ocean  course 
to  the  shores  of  England,  and  perhaps  to  Norway. 
Phoenicians  in  the  service  of  a  king  of  Egypt  started  in 
the  seventh  century  b.c.  to  circumnavigate  Africa,  and 
returned,  it  is  said,  at  the  end  of  three  years  by  the 


82  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Red  Sea.  An  expedition  issuing  from  Carthage 
skirted  the  coast  of  Africa  to  the  Gulf  of  Guinea;  the 
commander  Hanno  wrote  an  account  of  the  voyage 
which  is  still  preserved. 

Commodities. — To  civilized  peoples  the  Phoenicians 
sold  the  products  of  their  industry.  In  barbarous 
countries  they  went  to  search  for  what  they  could  not 
find  in  the  Orient.  On  the  coast  of  Greece  they  gath- 
ered shell-fish  from  which  they  extracted  a  red  tint, 
the  purple ;  cloths  colored  with  purple  were  used  among 
all  the  peoples  of  ancient  times  for  garments  of  kings 
and  great  lords. 

From  Spain  and  Sardinia  they  brought  the  silver 
which  the  inhabitants  took  from  the  mines.  Tin  was 
necessary  to  make  bronze,  an  alloy  of  copper  and  tin, 
but  the  Orient  did  not  furnish  this,  and  so  they  sought 
it  even  on  the  coasts  of  England,  in  the  Isles  of  Tin 
(the  Cassiterides).  In  every  country  they  procured 
slaves.  Sometimes  they  bought  them,  as  lately  the 
slavers  bought  negroes  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  for  all 
the  peoples  of  this  time  made  commerce  in  slaves ; 
sometimes  they  swooped  down  on  a  coast,  threw  them- 
selves on  the  women  and  children  and  carried  them  off 
to  be  retained  in  their  own  cities  or  to  be  sold  abroad : 
for  on  occasion  they  were  pirates  and  did  not  scruple 
to  plunder  strangers. 

The  Secrets  Kept  by  the  Phoenicians — The  Phoeni- 
cians did  not  care  to  have  mariners  of  other  peoples 
come  into  competition  with  them.  On  the  return  from 
these  far  countries  they  concealed  the  road  which  they 
had  travelled.  No  one  in  antiquity  knew  where  were 
the  famous  Isles  of  the  Cassiterides  from  which  they 


THE   PHCENICIANS  83 

got  their  tin.  It  was  by  chance  that  a  Greek  ship  dis- 
covered Spain,  with  which  the  Phoenicians  had  traded 
for  centuries.  Carthage  drowned  the  foreign  mer- 
chants whom  they  found  in  Sardinia  or  on  the  shore  of 
Gibraltar.  Once  a  Carthaginian  merchantman,  see- 
ing a  strange  ship  following  it,  was  run  aground  by 
the  pilot  that  the  foreigner  might  not  see  where  he 
was  going. 

Colonies. — In  the  countries  where  they  traded,  the 
Phoenicians  founded  factories,  or  branch-houses. 
They  were  fortified  posts  on  a  natural  harbor.  There 
they  landed  their  merchandise,  ordinarily  cloths,  pot- 
tery, ornaments,  and  idols. ^  The  natives  brought 
down  their  commodities  and  an  exchange  was  made, 
just  as  now  European  merchants  do  with  the  negroes 
of  Africa.  There  were  Phoenician  markets  in  Cyprus, 
in  Egypt,  and  in  all  the  then  barbarous  countries  of 
the  Mediterranean — in  Crete,  Greece,  Sicily,  Africa, 
Malta,  Sardinia,  on  the  coasts  of  Spain  at  Malaga 
and  Cadiz,  and  perhaps  in  Gaul  at  ]\Ionaco.  Often 
around  these  Phoenician  buildings  the  natives  set  up 
their  cabins  and  the  mart  became  a  city.  The  inhab- 
itants adopted  the  Phoenician  gods,  and  even  after  the 
city  had  become  Greek,  the  cult  of  Ihe  dove-goddess 
was  found  there  (as  in  Cythera),  that  of  the  god 
Melkhart  (as  at  Corinth),  or  of  the  god  with  the 
bull-face  that  devours  human  victims   (as  in  Crete). 

Influence  of  the  Phoenicians — It  is  certain  that  the 
Phoenicians  in  founding  their  trading  stations  cared 
only  for  their  own  interest.     But  it  came  to  pass  that 

*  These  idols,  one  of  their  principal  exports,  are  found  wher- 
ever the  Phoenicians  traded. 


84  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

their  colonies  contributed  to  civilization.  The  bar- 
barians of  the  West  received  the  cloths,  the  jewels, 
the  utensils  of  the  peoples  of  the  East  who  were  more 
civilized,  and,  receiving  them,  learned  to  imitate  them. 
For  a  long  time  the  Greeks  had  only  vases,  jewels, 
and  idols  brought  by  the  Phoenicians,  and  these 
served  ttjem  as  models.  The  Phoeniaians  brought 
simultaneously  from  Egypt  and  from  Assyria  industry 
and  commodities. 

The  Alphabet. — At  the  same  time  they  exported 
their  alphabet.  The  Phoenicians  did  not  invent  writ- 
ing. The  Egyptians  knew  how  to  write  many  cen- 
turies before  them,  they  even  made  use  of  letters  each 
of  which  expressed  its  own  sound,  as  in  our  alphabet. 
But  their  alphabet  was  still  encumbered  with  ancient 
signs  which  represented,  some  a  syllable,  others  an 
entire  word.  Doubtless  the  Phoenicians  had  need  of  a 
simpler  system  for  their  books  of  commerce.  They 
rejected  all  the  syllabic  signs  and  ideographs,  pre- 
serving only  twenty-two  letters,  each  of  which  marks 
a  sound  (or  rather  an  articulation  of  the  language). 
The  other  peoples  imitated  this  alphabet  of  twenty-two 
letters.  Some,  like  the  Jews,  wrote  from  right  to  left 
just  as  the  Phoenicians  themselves  did ;  others,  like  the 
Greeks,  from  left  to  right.  All  have  slightly  changed 
the  form  of  the  letters,  but  the  Phoenician  alphabet  is 
found  at  the  basis  of  all  the  alphabets — Hebrew, 
Lycian,  Greek,  Italian,  Etruscan,  Iberian,  perhaps  even 
in  the  runes  of  the  Norse.  It  is  the  Phoenicians  that 
taught  the  world  how  to  write. 


CHAPTER   VIII 
THE  HEBREWS 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  HEBREW  PEOPLE 

The  Bible — The  Jews  united  all  their  sacred  books 
into  a  single  aggregation  which  we  call  by  a  Greek 
name  the  Bible,  that  is  to  say,  the  Book.  It  is  the 
Book  par  excellence.  The  sacred  book  of  the  Jews 
became  also  the  sacred  book  of  the  Christians.  The 
Bible  is  at  the  same  time  the  history  of  the  Jewish 
nation,  and  all  that  we  know  of  the  sacred  people  we 
owe  to  the  sacred  books. 

The  Hebrews — When  the  Semites  had  descended 
from  the  mountains  of  Armenia  into  the  plains  of  the 
Euphrates,  one  of  their  tribes,  at  the  time  of  the  first 
Chaldean  empire,  withdrew  to  the  west,  crossed  the 
Euphrates,  the  desert,  and  Syria  and  came  to  the  coun- 
try of  the  Jordan  beyond  Phoenicia.  This  tribe  was 
called  the  Hebrews,  that  is  to  say,  the  people  from 
beyond  the  river.  Like  the  majority  of  the  Semites 
they  were  a  race  of  nomadic  shepherds.  They  did 
not  till  the  soil  and  had  no  houses;  they  moved  from 
place  to  place  with  their  herds  of  cattle,  sheep,  and 
camels,  seeking  pasturage  and  living  in  tents  as  the 
Arabs  of  the  desert  do  to  this  day.  In  the  book  of 
Genesis  one  has  a  glimpse  of  this  nomad  life. 

85 


86  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

The  Patriarchs — The  tribe  was  like  a  great  family ; 
it  was  composed  of  the  chief,  his  wives,  his  children, 
and  his  servants.  The  chief  had  absolute  authority 
over  all ;  for  the  tribe  he  was  father,  priest,  judge,  and 
king.  We  call  these  tribal  chiefs  patriarchs.  The 
principal  ones  were  Abraham  and  Jacob;  the  former 
the  father  of  the  Hebrews,  the  latter  of  the  Israelites. 
The  Bible  represents  both  of  them  as  designed  by  God 
to  be  the  scions  of  a  sacred  people.  Abraham  made  a 
covenant  with  God  that  he  and  his  descendants  would 
obey  him ;  God  promised  to  Abraham  a  posterity  more 
numerous  than  the  stars  of  heaven.  Jacob  received 
from  God  the  assurance  that  a  great  nation  should 
issue  from  himself. 

The  Israelites — Moved  by  a  vision  Jacob  took  the 
name  of  Israel  (contender  with  God).  His  tribe  was 
called  Beni-Israel  (sons  of  Israel)  or  Israelites.  The 
Bible  records  that,  driven  by  famine,  Jacob  abandoned 
the  Jordan  country  to  settle  with  all  his  house  on  the 
eastern  frontier  of  Egypt,  to  which  Joseph,  one  of 
his  sons  who  had  become  minister  of  a  Pharaoh,  in- 
vited him.  There  the  sons  of  Israel  abode  for  sev- 
eral centuries.  Coming  hither  but  seventy  in  number, 
they  multiplied,  according  to  the  Bible,  until  they 
became  six  hundred  thousand  men,  without  counting 
women  and  children. 

The  Call  of  Moses — The  king  of  Egypt  began  to 
oppress  them,  compelling  them  to  make  mortar  and 
bricks  for  the  construction  of  his  strong  cities.  It  was 
then  that  one  of  them,  Moses,  received  from  God  the 
mission  to  deliver  them.  One  day  while  he  was  keep- 
ing his  herds  on  the  mountain,  an  angel  appeared  to 


THE   HEBREWS  87 

him  in  the  midst  of  a  burning  bush,  and  he  heard  these 
words :  ''I  am  the  God  of  Abraham,  the  God  of  Isaac, 
the  God  of  Jacob.  I  have  seen  the  affliction  of  my 
people  which  is  in  Egypt,  I  have  heard  their  cry  against 
their  oppressors,  I  know  their  sorrows.  And  I  am 
come  down  to  dehver  them  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
Egyptians  and  to  bring  them  to  a  land  flowing  with 
milk  and  honey,  to  the  place  of  the  Canaanites.  .  .  . 
Come  now  therefore  and  I  will  send  thee  unto  Pharaoh 
that  thou  mayest  bring  forth  my  people,  the  children 
of  Israel,  out  of  Egypt."  ^  The  Israelites  under  the 
guidance  of  Moses  fled  from  Egypt  (the  Exodus)  ; 
they  journeyed  to  the  foot  of  Mount  Sinai,  where  they 
received  the  law  of  God,  and  for  an  entire  generation 
wandered  in  the  deserts  to  the  south  of  Syria. 

Israel  in  the  Desert. — Often  the  Israelites  wished  to 
turn  back.  "We  remember,"  said  they,  ''the  fish  which 
we  ate  in  Egypt,  the  cucumbers,  melons,  leeks,  and 
onions.  Let  us  appoint  a  chief  who  will  lead  us  back 
to  Egypt."  Moses,  however,  held  them  to  obedience. 
At  last  they  reached  the  land  promised  by  God  to  their 
race. 

The  Promised  Land — It  was  called  the  land  of 
Canaan  or  Palestine;  the  Jews  named  It  the  land  of 
Israel,  later  Judea.  Christians  have  termed  it  the 
Holy  Land.  It  is  an  arid  country,  burning  with  heat 
in  the  summer,  but  a  country  of  mountains.  The 
Bible  describes  it  thus :  ^'Jehovdh  thy  God  bringeth 
thee  into  a  good  land,  a  land  of  brooks  of  water,  of 
fountains  and  depths  that  spring  out  of  valleys  and 
hills,  a  land  of  wheat,  and  barley,  and  vines,  and  fig- 
*Exodus  iii.,  i-io. 


88  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

trees,  and  pomegranates ;  a  land  of  oil  olive  and  honey, 
wherein  thou  shalt  eat  bread  without  scarceness,  thou 
shalt  not  lack  anything  in  it."  The  Israelites  accord- 
ing to  their  estimate  were  then  601,700  men  capable 
of  bearing  arms,  divided  among  twelve  tribes,  ten 
descended  from  Jacob,  two  from  Joseph;  this  enu- 
meration does  not  include  the  Levites  or  priests  to  the 
number  of  23,000.  The  land  was  occupied  by  sev- 
eral small  peoples  who  were  called  Canaanites.  The 
Israelites  exterminated  them  and  at  last  occupied  their 
territory. 

THE  RELIGION  OF  ISRAEL 

One  God. — The  other  ancient  peoples  adored  many 
gods;  the  Israelites  believed  in  but  one  God,  imma- 
terial, who  made  the  world  and  governs  it.  "  In 
the  beginning,"  says  the  book  of  Genesis,  "God  cre- 
ated the  heavens  and  the  earth."  He  created  plants 
and  animals,  he  "created  man  in  his  own  image." 
All  men  are  the  handiwork  of  God. 

The  People  of  God. — But  among  all  mankind  God 
has  chosen  the  children  of  Israel  to  make  of  them  "his 
people."  He  called  Abraham  and  said  to  him,  "I 
will  establish  my  covenant  between  me  and  thee  and 
thy  seed  after  me  ...  to  be  a  God  unto  thee  and  to 
thy  seed."  He  appeared  to  Jacob:  "I  am  God,"  said 
he  to  him,  "the  God  of  thy  father;  fear  not  to  go 
down  into  Egypt,  for  I  will  make  of  thee  there  a 
great  nation."  When  Moses  asks  his  name,  he  re- 
plies, "Thou  shalt  say  to  the  children  of  Israel,  The 
Lord,  the  God  of  thy  fathers,  the  God  of  Abraham, 


THE    HEBREWS  89 

the  God  of  Isaac,  the  God  of  Jacob  hath  sent  me  unto 
you.     This  is  my  name  forever." 

The  Covenant. — There  is,  then,  a  covenant  between 
the  Israehtes  and  God.  Jehovah  (the  Eternal)  loves 
and  protects  the  Israelites,  they  are  "a  holy  nation," 
*'his  most  precious  jewel  among  all  the  nations."  He 
promises  to  make  them  mighty  and  happy.  In  re- 
turn, the  Israelites  swear  to  worship  him,  to  serve 
him,  to  obey  him  in  everything  as  a  lawgiver,  a  judge, 
and  a  sovereign. 

The  Ten  Commandments Jehovah,  lawgiver  of  the 

Israelites,  dictated  his  precepts  to  Moses  on  Mount 
Sinai  amidst  lightnings  and  thunderings.  They  were 
inscribed  on  two  tables,  the  Tables  of  the  Law,  in 
these  terms : 

"Hear,  O  Israel,  I  am  Jehovah,  thy  God,  who 
brought  you  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  from  the  land 
of  bondage."  (Then  follow  the  ten  commandments 
to  be  found  in  the  twentieth  chapter  of  the  book  of 
Exodus.) 

The  Law — Beside  the  ten  commandments,  the 
Israelites  are  required  to  obey  many  other  divine  ordi- 
nances. These  are  all  delivered  to  them  in  the  first 
five  books  of  the  Bible,  the  Pentateuch,  and  con- 
stitute the  Law  of  Israel.  The  Law  regulates  the 
ceremonies  of  religion,  establishes  the  feasts — includ- 
ing the  Sabbath  every  seven  days,  the  Passover  in 
memory  of  the  escape  from  Egypt,  the  week  of  har- 
vest, the  feast  of  Tabernacles  during  the  vintage;  it 
organizes  marriage,  the  family,  property,  government, 
fixes  the  penalty  of  crimes,  indicates  even  foods  and 
remedies.     It  is   a  code  at  once  religious,  political, 


90  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

civil  and  penal.     God  the  ruler  of  the  Israelites  has 
the  right  to  regulate  all  the  details  of  their  lives. 

Religion  has  made  the  Jewish  People. — The  Israel- 
ites did  not  receive  with  docility  the  government  of 
God.  Moses  on  his  death-bed  could  say  to  the  Levites 
in  delivering  to  them  the  book  of  the  law,  "Take  this 
book  that  it  may  be  a  witness  against  you,  Israel, 
for  I  know  thy  rebellion  and  thy  stiff  neck"  (Deut. 
xxxi.  27).  "During  my  life  you  have  been  rebellious 
against  the  Lord,  and  how  much  more  after  my 
death."  During  these  centuries  some  of  the  Israelites, 
often  the  majority  of  the  nation,  had  been  idolaters. 
They  became  similar  to  the  other  Semites  of  Syria. 
Only  the  Israelites  who  remained  faithful  to  God 
formed  the  Jewish  people.  It  is  the  religion  of  Jeho- 
vah which  has  transformed  an  obscure  tribe  into  the 
holy  nation,  a  small  nation,  but  one  of  the  most  signifi- 
cant in  the  history  of  the  world. 

THE  KINGDOM  OF  ISRAEL 
The  Judges. — Once  established  in  Palestine  the 
Hebrews  remained  divided  for  several  centuries.  "In 
those  days,"  says  the  Bible,  "there  was  no  king  in 
Israel;  every  man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his 
own  eyes."  Often  the  Israelites  forgot  Jehovah  and 
served  the  gods  of  neighboring  tribes.  Then  "the 
anger  of  the  Lord  was  kindled  against  the  Israelites, 
and  he  delivered  them  into  the  hands  of  their  enemies." 
When  they  had  repented  and  had  humbled  themselves, 
"the  Lord  raised  up  judges  who  delivered  them  out 
of  the  hand  of  those  that  spoiled  them."  "But  it 
came  to  pass  that  at  the  death  of  the  judge  they  cor- 


THE    HEBREWS  91 

rupted  themselves  anew  .  .  .  bowing  themselves  to 
other  gods."  These  judges — Gideon,  Jephthah,  Sam- 
son— were  warriors  who  came  in  the  name  of  Jehovah 
to  free  the  people.  Then  they  fell  at  once  into  idol- 
atry again  and  their  servitude  was  repeated. 

The  Kings. — At  last  the  Israelites  were  wearied  and 
asked  of  Samuel,  the  high-priest,  that  he  would  give 
them  a  king.  Samuel  unw^illingly  placed  Saul  at  their 
head.  This  king  should  have  been  the  ready  servant 
of  the  will  of  God;  he  dared  to  disobey  him,  upon 
which  the  high-priest  said  to  him,  "Thou  hast  rejected 
the  word  of  the  Lord  and  the  Lord  hath  rejected  thee 
from  being  king  over  Israel."  A  war-chief,  David, 
was  set  in  his  place.  He  defeated  all  the  enemies  of 
Israel,  captured  from  them  Mount  Zion,  and  trans- 
ferred his  capital  thither.     This  was  Jerusalem. 

Jerusalem. — Compared  with  Babylon  or  Thebes, 
Jerusalem  was  a  poor  capital.  The  Hebrews  were  not 
builders;  their  religion  prevented  them  from  raising 
temples;  the  houses  of  individuals  were  shaped  like 
cubes  of  rock  w^hich  may  be  seen  today  on  the  sides 
of  Lebanon  in  the  midst  of  vines  and  fig-trees.  But 
Jerusalem  was  the  holy  city  of  the  Hebrews.  The 
king  had  his  palace  there — the  palace  of  Solomon,  who 
astonished  the  Hebrews  with  his  throne  of  ivory ;  Jeho- 
vah had  his  temple  there,  the  first  Hebrew  temple. 

The  Tabernacle. — The  emblem  of  the  covenant  be- 
tween God  and  Israel  was  a  great  chest  of  cedar-wood 
furnished  with  rings  of  gold,  which  contained  the 
tables  of  the  Law.  This  was  borne  before  the  people 
on  high  feast-days;  it  was  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant. 
To  preserve  this  ark  and  necessary  objects  of  wor- 


92  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

ship,  Moses  is  said  to  have  made  the  Tabernacle — a 
pavihon  of  wood  covered  with  skins  and  hangings. 
It  was  a  portable  temple  which  the  Hebrews  carried 
with  them  until  they  could  erect  a  true  temple  in  the 
promised  land. 

The  Temple. — The  Temple  of  Jerusalem,  built  at 
last  under  Solomon,  was  divided  into  three  parts : 

I. — To  the  rear,  the  Holy  of  Holies,  in  which  rested 
the  ark  of  the  covenant;  the  high-priest  only  had  the 
right  to  enter  here,  and  that  but  once  a  year, 

2. — In  the  middle,  the  Holy  Place,  in  which  were 
kept  the  altar  of  incense,  the  candle-stick  with  the 
seven  arms,  the  table  of  shew-bread;  the  priests  en- 
tered to  burn  incense  and  to  present  the  offerings. 

3. — At  the  front,  the  Court  open  to  the  people, 
where  the  victims  were  sacrificed  on  the  great  altar. 

The  Temple  of  Jerusalem  was  from  the  first  the 
centre  of  the  nation;  from  all  Palestine  the  people 
came  to  be  present  at  the  ceremonies.  The  high-priest 
who  directed  the  worship  was  a  person  sometimes  of 
greater  power  than  the  king. 

THE  PROPHETS 

Disasters  of  Israel. — Solomon  was  the  last  king 
who  enjoyed  great  power.  After  him  ten  tribes  sepa- 
rated themselves  and  constituted  the  kingdom  of  Israel, 
whose  inhabitants  worshipped  the  golden  calves  and 
the  gods  of  the  Phoenicians.  Two  tribes  only  re- 
mained faithful  to  Jehovah  and  to  the  king  at  Jerusa- 
lem; these  formed   the  kingdom   of  Judah    (977).^ 

*  There  is  much  uncertainty  regarding  the  chronology  of  this 
period. — Ed. 


THE    HEBREWS  93 

The  two  kingdoms  exhausted  their  energies  in  mak- 
ing war  on  each  other.  Then  came  the  armies  of  the 
Eastern  conquerors;  Israel  was  destroyed  by  Sargon, 
king  of  Assyria  (^22)  ;  Judah,  by  Nabuchodonosor 
(Nebuchadrezzar),  king  of  Chaldea  (586). 

Sentiments  of  the  Israelites. — Faithful  Israelites 
regarded  these  woes  as  a  chastisement :  God  was  pun- 
ishing his  people  for  their  disobedience;  as  before,  he 
delivered  them  from  their  conquerors.  "The  children 
of  Israel  had  sinned  against  Jehovah,  their  God,  they 
had  built  them  high  places  In  every  city,  they  imitated 
the  nations  around  them,  although  the  Lord  had  for- 
bidden them  to  do  like  them ;  they  made  them  idols  of 
brass;  they  bowed  themselves  before  all  the  host  of 
heaven  [the  stars],  they  worshipped  Baal.  It  is  for 
this  that  Jehovah  rejected  all  the  race  of  Israel,  he 
afflicted  them  and  delivered  them  into  the  hands  of 
those  that  plundered  them.'' 

The  Prophets. — Then  appeared  the  prophets,  or  as 
they  were  called,  the  Seers :  Elijah,  Jeremiah,  Isaiah, 
Ezekiel.  Usually  they  came  from  the  desert  where 
they  had  fasted,  prayed,  and  given  themselves  to  medi- 
tation. They  came  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  not  as 
w^arriors  in  judgment,  but  as  preachers.  They  called 
the  Israelites  to  repent,  to  overthrow  their  idols,  to 
return  to  Jehovah;  they  foretold  all  the  woes  that 
would  come  upon  them  if  they  did  not  reconcile  them- 
selves to  him.  They  preached  and  uttered  prophecies 
at  the  same  time. 

The  New  Teaching.— These  men  on  fire  with  the 
divine  spirit  found  the  official  religion  at  Jerusalem 
mean  and  cold.     Why  should  they,  like  the  idolaters. 


94  ANCIENT    CIVILIZATION 

slaughter  cattle  and  burn  incense  to  the  honor  of  God  ? 
''Hear  the  word  of  Jehovah,"  says  Isaiah :  *'To  what 
purpose  is  the  multitude  of  your  sacrifices?  I  am 
full  of  the  burnt  offerings  of  rams  and  of  the  fat  of 
fed  beasts ;  and  I  delight  not  in  the  blood  of  bullocks, 
or  of  lambs,  or  of  he-goats.  .  .  .  Bring  no  more 
vain  oblations,  your  incense  is  an  abomination  to  me. 
.  .  .  When  ye  spread  forth  your  hands,  I  will  hide 
mine  eyes  from  you  .  .  .  for  your  hands  are  full  of 
blood.  Wash  you,  make  you  clean  .  .  .  cease  to  do 
evil,  learn  to  do  well ;  seek  judgment,  relieve  the  op- 
pressed, judge  the  fatherless,  plead  for  the  widow. 
.  .  .  Though  your  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  as 
white  as  snow."  In  place  of  sacrifices,  the  prophets 
would  set  justice  and  good  works. 

The  Messiah. — Israel  deserved  its  afflictions,  but 
there  would  be  a  limit  to  the  chastisement.  *'0  my 
people,"  says  Isaiah  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  "be  not 
afraid  of  the  Assyrian :  he  shall  smite  thee  with  a  rod 
.  .  .  after  the  manner  of  Egypt  .  .  .  for  yet  a  very 
little  while  and  the  indignation  shall  cease  .  .  .  and 
the  burden  shall  be  taken  away  from  off  thy  shoulder." 
The  prophets  taught  the  people  to  look  for  the  com- 
ing of  Him  who  should  deliver  them;  they  prepared 
the  way  for  the  Messiah. 

THE   JEWISH    PEOPLE 

Return  to  Jerusalem — The  children  of  Judah,  re- 
moved to  the  plain  of  the  Euphrates,  did  not  forget 
their  country,  but  sang  of  it  in  their  chants :  "By  the 
rivers  of  Babylon,  there  we  sat  down,  yea,  we  wept 


THE   HEBREWS  95 

when  we  remembered  Zion.  We  hanged  our  harps 
upon  the  willows  in  the  midst  thereof,  for  there 
they  that  carried  us  away  required  a  song  .  .  .  say- 
ing, *Sing  us  one  of  the  songs  of  Zion.'  How  shall 
we  sing  the  Lord's  song  in  a  strange  land?"  After 
seventy  years  of  captivity,  Cyrus,  victor  over  Baby- 
lon, allowed  the  Israelites  to  return  to  Palestine. 
They  rebuilt  Jerusalem,  reconstructed  the  temple,  re- 
stored the  feasts,  and  recovered  the  sacred  books. 
As  a  sign  that  they  w^ere  again  the  people  of  Jehovah 
they  renewed  the  covenant  with  him;  it  was  a  for- 
mal treaty,  written  and  signed  by  the  chiefs  of  the 
people. 

The  Jews. — The  little  kingdom  of  Jerusalem  main- 
tained itself  for  seven  centuries,  governed  now  by  a 
king,  now  by  the  high-priest,  but  ahvays  paying  trib- 
ute to  the  masters  of  Syria — to  the  Persians  first, 
later  to  the  Macedonians  and  the  Syrians,  and  last  of 
all  to  the  Romans.  Faithful  to  the  end  to  Jehovah, 
the  Jews  (their  proper  name  since  the  return)  con- 
tinued to  live  the  law  of  Moses,  to  celebrate  at  Jerusa- 
lem the  feasts  and  the  sacrifices.  The  high-priest, 
assisted  by  a  council  of  the  elders,  preserved  the  law ; 
scribes  copied  it  and  doctors  expounded  it  to  the 
people.  The  faithful  obliged  themselves  to  observe 
it  in  the  smallest  details.  The  Pharisees  were  eminent 
among  them  for  their  zeal  in  fulfilling  all  its  require- 
ments. 

The  Synagogues. — Meanwhile  the  Jews  for  the  sake 
of  trade  were  pushing  beyond  the  borders  of  Judaea 
into  Egypt,  Syria,  Asia  Minor,  and  even  to  Italy. 
Some  of  them  were  to  be  found  in  all  the  great  cities 


9b  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

— Alexandria,  Damascus,  Antioch,  Ephesus,  Corinth 
and  Rome.  Dispersed  among  the  Gentiles,  the  Jews 
were  strenuous  to  preserve  their  religion.  They 
raised  no  temples,  for  the  law  prevented  this;  there 
could  be  but  one  Jewish  temple,  that  at  Jerusalem, 
where  they  celebrated  the  solemn  feasts.  But  they 
joined  themselves  together  to  read  and  comment  on 
the  word  of  God.  These  places  of  assembling  were 
called  Synagogues,  from  a  Greek  word  signifying 
meetings. 

Destruction  of  the  Temple. — The  Christ  appeared 
at  this  moment.  The  Jews  crucified  him  and  perse- 
cuted his  disciples  not  only  in  Judaea  but  in  every  city 
where  they  found  them  in  any  number.  In  the  year 
70  A.D.  Jerusalem,  in  revolt  against  the  Romans,  was 
taken  by  assault,  and  all  the  inhabitants  were  massa- 
cred or  sold  into  slavery.  The  Romans  burnt  the 
temple  and  carried  away  the  sacred  utensils.  From 
that  time  there  was  no  longer  a  centre  of  the  Jewish 
religion. 

Fortunes  of  the  Jews  after  the  Dispersion. — The 
Jewish  nation  survived  the  ruin  of  its  capital.  The 
Jews,  scattered  throughout  the  world,  learned  to  dis- 
pense with  the  temple.  They  preserved  their  sacred 
books  In  the  Hebrew  tongue.  Hebrew  Is  the  primitive 
language  of  Israel;  the  Jews  since  the  return  from 
Babylon  no  longer  spoke  It,  but  adopted  the  languages 
of  the  neighboring  peoples — the  Syriac,  the  Chaldean, 
and  especially  the  Greek.  The  Rabbis,  however.  In- 
structed In  the  religion,  still  learned  the  Hebrew, 
explained  it,  and  commented  on  the  Scripture.^     Thus 

*  The  Talmud  is  the  accumulation  of  these  commentaries. 


THE    HEBREWS  97 

the  Jewish  religion  was  preserved,  and,  thanks  to  it, 
the  Jewish  people.  It  made  converts  even  among  the 
Gentiles;  there  were  in  the  empire  proselytes,  that  is, 
people  who  practised  the  religion  of  Jehovah  without 
being  of  the  Jewish  race. 

The  Christian  Church,  powerful  since  the  fourth 
century,  commenced  to  persecute  the  Jew^s.  This  per- 
secution has  endured  to  this  day  in  all  Christian 
countries.  Usually  the  Jews  were  tolerated  on  ac- 
count of  their  wealth  and  because  they  transacted  all 
banking  operations;  but  they  were  kept  apart,  not 
being  permitted  to  hold  any  office.  In  the  majority  of 
cities  they  were  compelled  to  wxar  a  special  costume, 
to  live  in  a  special  quarter,^  gloomy,  filthy,  unhealthy, 
and  sometimes  at  Easter  time  to  send  one  of  their 
number  to  suffer  insult.  The  people  suspected  them 
of  poisoning  fountains,  of  killing  children,  of  pro- 
faning the  consecrated  host;  often  the  people  rose 
against  them,  massacred  them,  and  pillaged  their 
houses.  Judges  under  the  least  pretext  had  them 
imprisoned,  tortured,  and  burned.  Sometimes  the 
church  tried  to  convert  them  by  force;  sometimes  the 
government  exiled  them  en  masse  from  the  country 
and  confiscated  their  goods.  The  Jews  at  last  disap- 
peared from  France,-  from  Spain,  England,  and  Italy. 
In  Portugal,  Germany,  and  Poland,  and  in  the  Mo- 
hammedan lands  they  maintained  themselves.  From 
these  countries  after  the  cessation  of  persecution  they 
returned  to  the  rest  of  Europe. 

*  The  Jewish  Quarter  at  Rome  was  called  the  Ghetto.  This 
name  has  since  been  applied  to  all  Jewish  quarters. 

2  Except  at  Avignon,  on  the  domains  of  the  Pope,  and  in 
Alsace-Lorraine. 


CHAPTER    IX 
GREECE  AND    THE    GREEKS 

The  Country. — Greece  is  a  very  little  country  (about 
20,000  square  miles),  hardly  larger  than  Switzerland; 
but  it  is  a  country  of  great  variety,  bristling  with 
mountains,  indented  with  gulfs — a  country  originally 
constituted  to  influence  mightily  the  character  of  the 
men  who  inhabited  it. 

A  central  chain,  the  Pindus,  traverses  Greece 
through  the  centre  and  covers  it  with  its  rocky  sys- 
tem. Toward  the  isthmus  of  Corinth  it  becomes 
lower;  but  the  Peloponnesus,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
isthmus,  is  elevated  about  2,000  feet  above  the  sea 
level,  like  a  citadel  crowned  with  lofty  chains,  abrupt 
and  snowy,  which  fall  perpendicularly  into  the  sea. 
The  islands  themselves  scattered  along  the  coast  are 
only  submerged  mountains  whose  summits  rise  above 
the  surface  of  the  sea.  In  this  diverse  land  there  is 
little  tillable  ground,  but  almost  everywhere  bare  rock. 
The  streams,  like  brooks,  leave  between  their  half- 
dried  channel  and  the  sterile  rock  of  the  mountain  only 
a  narrow  strip  of  fertile  soil.  In  this  beautiful  coun- 
try are  found  some  forests,  cypresses,  laurels,  palms, 
here  and  there  vines  scattered  on  the  rocky  hillsides; 
but  there  are  no  rich  harvests  and  no  green  pasturages. 
Such  a  country  produces  wiry  mountaineers,  active 
and  sober. 

98 


GREECE  AND  THE  GREEKS         99 

The  Sea. — Greece  is  a  land  of  shores :  smaller  than 
Portugal,  it  has  as  great  a  coast-line  as  Spain.  The 
sea  penetrates  it  to  a  great  number  of  gulfs,  coves, 
and  indentations ;  it  is  ordinarily  surrounded  with  pro- 
jecting rocks,  or  with  approaching  islands  that  form 
a  natural  port.  This  sea  is  like  a  lake ;  it  has  not,  like 
the  ocean,  a  pale  and  sombre  color ;  usually  it  is  calm, 
lustrous,  and,  as  Homer  says,  "of  the  color  of  violets." 

No  sea  lends  itself  better  to  navigation  with  small 
ships.  Every  morning  the  north  wind  rises  to  con- 
duct the  barques  of  Athens  to  Asia;  in  the  evening 
the  south  wind  brings  them  back  to  port.  From 
Greece  to  Asia  Minor  the  islands  are  placed  like  step- 
ping-stones; on  a  clear  day  the  mariner  always  has 
land  in  view.     Such  a  sea  beckons  people  to  cross  it. 

And  so  the  Greeks  have  been  sailors,  traders,  travel- 
lers, pirates,  and  adventurers;  like  the  Phoenicians, 
they  have  spread  over  all  the  ancient  world,  carrying 
with  them  the  merchandise  and  the  inventions  of 
Egypt,  of  Chaldea,  and  of  Asia. 

The  Climate. — The  climate  of  Greece  is  mild.  In 
Athens  it  freezes  hardly  once  in  twenty  years ;  in  sum- 
mer the  heat  is  moderated  by  the  breeze  from  the 
sea.^  Today  the  people  still  lie  in  the  streets  from 
the  month  of  May  to  September.  The  air  is  cool  and 
transparent;  for  many  leagues  could  once  be  seen  the 
crest  of  the  statue  of  Pallas.  The  contours  of  dis- 
tant mountains  are  not,  as  with  us,  enveloped  in  haze, 
but  show  a  clear  line  against  the  clear  sky.  It  is  a 
beautiful  country  which  urges  man  to  take  life  as  a 

^  "Balmy  and  clement,"  says  Euripides,  "is  our  atmosphere. 
The  cold  of  winter  has  no  extremes  for  us,  and  the  shafts  of  the 
sun  do  not  wound." 


100  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

feast,  for  everything  is  happy  about  him.  ''Walking 
at  night  in  the  gardens,  hstening  to  the  grasshoppers, 
playing  the  lute  in  the  clear  of  the  moon,  going  to  drink 
at  the  spring  at  the  mountain,  carrying  with  him  some 
wine  that  he  may  drink  while  he  sings,  spending  the 
days  in  dancing — these  are  Greek  pleasures,  the  joys 
of  a  race  poor,  economical,  and  eternally  young." 

Simplicity  of  Greek  Life. — In  this  country  men  are 
not  melted  with  the  heat  nor  stiffened  with  cold ;  they 
live  in  the  open  air  gay  and  at  slight  expense.  Food 
in  great  quantity  is  not  required,  nor  warm  clothing, 
nor  a  comfortable  house.  The  Greek  could  live  on  a 
handful  of  olives  and  a  sardine.  His  entire  clothing 
consisted  of  sandals,  a  tunic,  a  large  mantle;  very 
often  he  went  bare-footed  and  bare-headed.  His 
house  was  a  meagre  and  unsubstantial  building;  the 
air  easily  entered  through  the  walls.  A  couch  with 
some  coverings,  a  coffer,  some  beautiful  vases,  a  lamp, 
— this  was  his  furniture.  The  walls  were  bare  and 
whitened  with  lime.  This  house  was  only  a  sleep- 
ing place. 

THE  PEOPLE 

Origin  of  the  Greeks — The  people  who  Inhabited 
this  charming  little  land  were  an  Aryan  people,  re- 
lated to  the  Hindoos  and  the  Persians,  and  like  them 
come  from  the  mountains  of  Asia  or  the  steppes  be- 
yond the  Caspian  Sea.  The  Greeks  had  forgotten  the 
long  journey  made  by  their  ancestors;  they  said  that 
they,  like  the  grasshoppers,  were  the  children  of  the 
soil.^  But  their  language  and  the  names  of  their 
*  Autochthones. 


GREECE  AND  THE  GREEKS        101 

gods  leave  no  doubt  of  dieir  origin.  .  .  .  Like  all 
the  Aryans,  the  primitive  Greeks  nourished  themselves 
with  milk  and  with  the  flesh  of  their  herds  ;  they  moved 
about  under  arms,  always  ready  to  fight,  and  grouped 
themselves  in  tribes  governed  by  patriarchs. 

The  Legends. — The  Greeks  like  all  the  other  ancient 
peoples  were  ignorant  of  their  origin.  They  neither 
knew  whence  their  ancestors  had  come  nor  when  they 
had  established  themselves  in  Greece,  nor  what  they 
had  done  there.  To  preserve  the  exact  memory  of 
things  as  they  occur,  there  is  need  of  some  means 
of  fixing  them ;  but  the  Greeks  did  not  know  how  to 
write;  they  did  not  employ  writing  until  about  the 
eighth  century  B.C.  They  had  no  way  of  calculating 
the  number  of  years.  Later  they  adopted  the  usage  of 
counting  the  years  according  to  the  great  feast  which 
was  celebrated  every  four  years  at  Olympia;  a  period 
of  four  years  was  called  an  olympiad.  But  the  first 
olympiad  was  placed  in  776  b.c,  and  the  chronology 
of  the  Greeks  does  not  rise  beyond  this  date. 

And  yet  they  used  to  tell  in  Greece  a  great  number 
of  legends  about  this  primitive  period.  These  were 
especially  the  exploits  of  ancient  kings  and  of  heroes 
who  were  adored  as  demi-gods.  These  stories  were 
so  mingled  with  fable  that  it  is  impossible  to  know 
how  much  truth  they  may  contain.  They  said  at 
Athens  that  the  first  king,  Cecrops,  was  half  man  and 
half  serpent;  at  Thebes,  that  Cadmus,  founder  of  the 
city,  had  come  from  Phoenicia  to  seek  his  sister  Eu- 
ropa  who  had  been  stolen  by  a  bull ;  that  he  had 
killed  a  dragon  and  had  sowed  his  teeth,  from  which 
was  sprung  a  race  of  warriors,   and  that  the  noble 


102  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

families  of  Thebes  descended  from  these  warriors. 
At  Argos  it  was  said  that  the  royal  family  was  the 
issue  of  Pelops  to  whom  Zeus  had  given  a  shoulder  of 
ivory  to  replace  the  one  devoured  by  a  goddess.  Thus 
each  country  had  its  legends  and  the  Greeks  continued 
to  the  end  to  relate  them  and  to  ofifer  worship  to  their 
ancient  heroes — Perseus,  Bellerophon,  Herakles,  The- 
seus, Minos,  Castor  and  Pollux,  Meleager,  CEdipus. 
The  majority  of  the  Greeks,  even  among  the  better 
educated,  admitted,  at  least  in  part,  the  truth  of  these 
traditions.  They  accepted  as  historical  facts  the  war 
between  the  two  sons  of  CEdipus,  king  of  Thebes,  and 
the  expedition  of  the  Argonauts,  sailing  forth  in  quest 
of  the  Golden  Fleece,  which  was  guarded  by  two 
brazen-footed  bulls  vomiting  flames. 

The  Trojan  War. — Of  all  these  legends  the  most 
fully  developed  and  the  most  celebrated  was  the  legend 
of  the  Trojan  War.  It  recounted  that  about  the 
twelfth  century,  Troy,  a  rich  and  powerful  city,  held 
sway  over  the  coast  of  Asia.  Paris,  a  Trojan  prince, 
having  come  to  Greece,  had  abducted  Helen,  wife  of 
Menelaus,  king  of  Sparta.  Agamemnon,  king  of 
Argos,  made  a  league  of  the  kings  of  Greece;  a 
Greek  army  went  in  a  fleet  of  two  hundred  galleys  to 
besiege  Troy.  The  siege  endured  ten  years  because 
the  supreme  god,  Zeus,  had  taken  the  side  of  the 
Trojans.  All  the  Greek  chiefs  participated  in  this 
adventure.  Achilles,  the  bravest  and  the  most  beauti- 
ful of  these,  killed  Hector,  the  principal  defender  of 
Troy,  and  dragged  his  corpse  around  the  city;  he 
fought  clad  in  divine  armor  which  had  been  presented 
him  by  his  mother,  a  goddess  of  the  sea;  in  turn  he 


GREECE  AND  THE  GREEKS        103 

died,  shot  by  an  arrow  in  die  heel.  The  Greeks,  de- 
spairing of  taking  the  city  by  force,  employed  a  trick : 
they  pretended  to  depart,  and  left  an  immense  horse 
of  wood  in  which  were  concealed  the  chiefs  of  the 
army.  The  Trojans  drew  this  horse  into  the  city; 
during  the  night  the  chiefs  came  forth  and  opened 
the  city  to  the  Greeks.  Troy  was  burnt,  the  men 
slaughtered,  the  women  led  away  as  slaves.  But  the 
chiefs  of  the  Greeks  on  their  return  were  beset  by 
tempest.  Some  perished  in  the  sea,  others  were  cast 
on  foreign  shores.  Odysseus,  the  most  crafty  of  the 
chiefs,  w^as  for  ten  years  buffeted  from  one  land  to 
another,  losing  successively  all  his  ships,  himself  the 
sole  survivor  of  the  disasters. 

All  antiquity  had  steadfast  faith  in  the  Trojan  War. 
1 184  B.C.  was  set  as  the  date  of  the  ending  of  the  siege, 
and  men  pointed  out  the  site  of  the  city.  In  1874 
Schliemann  purposed  to  excavate  this  site ;  it  was  nec- 
essary to  traverse  the  debris  of  many  cities  which  lay 
over  it ;  at  last  at  a  depth  of  about  fifty  feet  he  found 
in  the  deepest  bed  of  debris  the  traces  of  a  mighty  city 
reduced  to  ashes,  and  in  the  ruins  of  the  principal 
edifice  a  casket  filled  with  gems  of  gold  wdiich  he 
called  the  Treasury  of  Priam.  There  was  no  inscrip- 
tion, and  the  city,  the  whole  wall  of  which  we  have 
been  able  to  bring  to  light,  was  a  very  small  one.  A 
large  number  of  small,  very  rude  idols  have  been  found, 
which  represent  an  owl-headed  goddess  (the  Greeks 
thus  represented  the  goddess  Pallas).  Beyond  this^ 
no  proof  has  been  found  that  this  city  was  called  Troy. 

The  Homeric  Poems — It  is  the  two  poems  attributed 
to  Homer  which  have  made  the  taking  of  Troy  re- 


104  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

nowned  throughout  the  world — the  IHad,  which  re- 
lated the  combats  of  the  Greeks  and  the  exploits  of 
Achilles  before  Troy ;  and  the  Odyssey,  which  recounts 
the  adventures  of  Odysseus  (Ulysses)  after  the  cap- 
ture of  Troy. 

These  two  poems  were  handed  down  for  centuries 
without  being  committed  to  writing;  the  rhapsodists, 
wandering  singers,  knew  long  passages  from  them  by 
heart  and  recited  them  at  feasts.  It  is  not  till  the 
sixth  century  that  Pisistratus,  a  prince  of  Athens,  had 
them  collected  and  edited.^  The  two  poems  became 
from  that  time  and  always  remained  the  most  admired 
works  of  Greek  literature. 

The  Greeks  said  that  the  author  of  these  poems 
was  Homer,  a  Greek  of  Ionia,  who  lived  about  the 
tenth  or  the  ninth  century  b.c.  They  represented  him 
as  a  blind  old  man,  poor  and  a  wanderer.  Seven 
towns  disputed  the  honor  of  being  his  birth-place. 
This  tradition  was  received  without  hesitation.  But 
at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century  a  German  scholar, 
Wolf,  noticed  certain  contradictions  in  these  poems, 
and  at  last  asserted  that  they  were  not  the  work  of  a 
single  poet,  but  a  collection  of  fragments  from  several 
different  poets.  This  theory  has  been  attacked  and 
supported  with  great  energy:  for  a  half  century  men 
have  flown  into  a  passion  for  or  against  the  existence 
of  Homer.  Today  we  begin  to  think  the  problem  in- 
soluble. What  is  certain  is  that  these  poems  are  very 
old,  probably  of  the  ninth  century.  The  Iliad  was 
composed  in  Asia  Minor  and  is  perhaps  the  result  of 

*  The  story  of  the  collection  of  the  Homeric  poems  by  Pisistra- 
tus is  without  foundation — "eine  blosse  Fabel.'-  Busolt,  "Griech- 
ische  Geschichte. "     Gotha,  1893,  i.,  127. — Ed. 


GREECE  AND  THE  GREEKS        105 

the  union  of  two  poems — one  dedicated  to  the  combats 
of  the  Trojans,  and  the  other  to  the  adventures  of 
Achilles.  The  Odyssey  appears  to  be  the  work  of  one 
author ;  but  it  cannot  be  affirmed  that  it  is  of  the  same 
author  as  the  Iliad. 

The  Greeks  at  the  Time  of  Homer — We  are  not  able 
to  go  back  very  far  in  the  history  of  the  Greeks;  the 
Homeric  poems  are  their  oldest  historical  document. 
When  these  w^ere  composed,  about  the  ninth  century 
B.C.,  there  was  not  yet  any  general  name  to  designate 
all  the  inhabitants  of  Greece:  Homer  mentions  them 
under  the  names  of  their  principal  tribes.  From  his 
description  it  appears  that  they  have  made  some  prog- 
ress since  their  departure  from  Asia.  They  know 
how  to  till  the  ground,  how  to  construct  strong  cities 
and  to  organize  themselves  into  little  peoples.  They 
obey  kings;  they  have  a  council  of  old  men  and  an 
assembly  of  the  people.  They  are  proud  of  their  in- 
stitutions, they  despise  their  less  advanced  neighbors, 
the  Barbarians,  as  they  call  them.  Odysseus,  to  show 
how  rude  the  Cyclops  were,  says,  "They  have  no  rules 
of  justice  nor  places  where  they  deliberate;  each  one 
governs  himself,  his  wife,  and  children,  and  has  no 
association  with  others."  But  these  Greeks  them- 
selves are  half  barbarians;  they  do  not  know  how  to 
write,  to  coin  money,  nor  the  art  of  working  In  iron. 
They  hardly  dare  to  trust  themselves  on  the  sea  and 
they  imagine  that  Sicily  is  peopled  with  monsters. 

The  Dorians. — Dorians  was  the  name  given  to  those 
sons  of  the  mountaineers  who  had  come  from  the 
north  and  had  expelled  or  subjected  those  dwelling 
in  the  plains  and  on  the  shore  of  the  Peloponnesus; 


106  ANCIENT    CIVILIZATION 

the  latter,  crowded  into  too  narrow  limits,  sent  col- 
onies into  Asia.  Of  these  mountain  bands  the  most 
renowned  came  from  a  little  canton  called  Doris  and 
preserved  the  name  Dorians.  These  invaders  told 
how  certain  kings  of  Sparta,  the  posterity  of  Herakles, 
having  been  thrust  out  by  their  subjects,  had  come  to 
seek  the  Dorians  in  their  mountains.  These  people 
of  the  mountains,  moved  by  their  love  for  Herakles, 
had  followed  his  descendants  and  had  replaced  them  on 
their  throne.  By  the  same  stroke  they  dispossessed 
the  inhabitants  and  took  their  place.  They  were  a 
martial,  robust,  and  healthy  race,  accustomed  to  cold, 
to  meagre  food,  to  a  scant  existence.  Men  and  women 
wore  a  short  tunic  which  did  not  reach  to  the  knee. 
They  spoke  a  rude  and  primitive  dialect.  The  Dori- 
ans were  a  race  of  soldiers,  always  obliged  to  keep 
themselves  under  arms;  they  were  the  least  cultivated 
in  Greece,  since,  situated  far  from  the  sea,  they  pre- 
served the  customs  of  the  barbarous  age;  they  were 
the  most  Greek  because,  being  isolated,  they  could 
neither  mingle  with  strangers  nor  imitate  their  man- 
ners. 

The  lonians — The  peoples  of  Attica,  the  isles,  and 
the  coast  of  Asia  were  called  lonians;  no  one  knows 
the  origin  of  the  name.  Unlike  the  Dorians,  they 
were  a  race  of  sailors  or  traders,  the  most  cultured  of 
Greece,  gaining  instruction  from  contact  with  the  most 
civilized  peoples  of  the  Orient;  the  least  Greek,  be- 
cause they  associated  with  Asiatics  and  had  in  part 
adopted  their  dress.  They  were  peaceful  and  indus- 
trious, living  luxuriously,  speaking  a  smooth  dialect, 
and  wearing  long  flowing  garments  like  the  Orientals. 


GREECE   AND   THE   GREEKS  107 

The  Hellenes. — Dorians  and  lonians — these  are  the 
two  opposing  races,  the  most  remarkable  of  Greece, 
and  the  most  powerful :  Sparta  is  Dorian,  Athens  is 
Ionian.  But  the  majority  of  the  Greeks  are  neither 
Dorians  nor  lonians :  they  are  called  Cohans,  a  vague 
name  which  covers  very  different  peoples. 

All  the  Greeks  from  early  times  take  the  name 
"Hellenes"  which  they  have  kept  to  this  day.  What 
is  the  origin  of  the  term?  They  did  not  know  any 
more  than  we :  they  said  only  that  Dorus  and  ^olus 
were  sons  of  Hellen,  and  Ion  was  his  grandson. 

Cities. — The  Hellenes  were  still  in  little  peoples  as 
at  the  time  of  Homer.  The  land  of  Greece,  cut  by 
mountains  and  sea,  breaks  naturally  into  a  large  num- 
ber of  small  cantons,  each  isolated  from  its  neighbor 
by  an  arm  of  the  sea  or  by  a  wall  of  rocks,  so  that  it 
is  easy  to  defend  the  land  and  difficult  to  communicate 
with  other  parts.  Each  canton  constituted  a  separate 
state  which  was  called  a  city.  There  were  more  than 
a  hundred  of  these ;  counting  the  colonies,  more  than  a 
thousand.  To  us  a  Greek  state  seems  a  miniature. 
The  whole  of  Attica  was  but  little  larger  than  the 
state  of  Delaware,  and  Corinth  or  Megara  was  much 
smaller.  Usually  the  state  was  only  a  city  with  a 
strip  of  shore  and  a  harbor,  or  some  villages  scattered 
in  the  plain  around  a  citadel.  From  one  state  one 
sees  the  citadel,  mountains,  or  harbor  of  the  next  state. 
Many  of  them  count  their  citizens  only  by  thousands ; 
the  largest  included  hardly  200,000  or  300,000. 

The  Hellenes  never  formed  one  nation ;  they  never 
ceased  to  fight  and  destroy  one  another.  And  yet  all 
spoke  the  same  language,  worshipped  the  same  gods, 


108  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

and  lived  the  same  sort  of  a  life.  In  these  respects 
they  recognized  the  bonds  of  a  common  race  and  dis- 
tinguished themselves  from  all  other  peoples  whom 
they  called  barbarians  and  regarded  with  disdain. 


THE    HELLENES    BEYOND    SEA 

Colonization — The  Hellenes  did  not  inhabit  Greece 
alone.  Colonists  from  the  Greek  cities  had  gone  forth 
to  found  new  cities  in  all  the  neighboring  countries. 
There  were  little  states  in  all  the  islands  of  the  Arch- 
ipelago, over  all  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor,  in  Crete  and 
Cyprus,  on  the  whole  circumference  of  the  Black  Sea 
as  far  as  the  Caucasus  and  the  Crimea,  along  the  shore 
of  Turkey  in  Europe  (then  called  Thrace),  on  the 
shore  of  Africa,  in  Sicily,  in  south  Italy,  and  even  on 
the  coasts  of  France  and  Spain. 

Character  of  These  Colonies. — Greek  colonies  were 
being  founded  all  the  time  from  the  twelfth  century  to 
the  fifth ;  they  issued  from  various  cities  and  repre- 
sented all  the  Greek  races — Dorian,  Ionian,  and  /Eo- 
lian.  They  were  established  in  the  wilderness,  in  an 
inhabited  land,  by  conquest,  or  by  an  agreement  with 
the  natives.  Mariners,  merchants,  exiles,  or  adven- 
turers were  their  founders.  But  with  all  this  diver- 
sity of  time,  place,  race,  and  origin,  the  colonies  had 
common  characteristics:  they  were  established  at  one 
stroke  and  according  to  certain  fixed  rules.  The  col- 
onists did  not  arrive  one  by  one  or  in  small  bands ;  nor 
did  they  settle  at  random,  building  houses  which  little 
by  little  became  a  city,  as  is  the  case  now  with  Eu- 
ropean colonists  in  America.     All  the  colonists  started 


GREECE  AND  THE  GREEKS        109 

at  once  under  a  leader,  and  the  new  city  was  founded 
in  one  day.  The  foundation  was  a  rehgious  cere- 
mony; the  ''founder"  traced  a  sacred  enclosure,  con- 
structed a  sacred  hearth,  and  lighted  there  the  holy 
fire. 

Traditions  Concerning  the  Colonists. — The  old  sto- 
ries about  the  founding  of  some  of  these  colonies  en- 
able us  to  see  how  they  differed  from  modern  colonies. 
The  account  of  the  settlement  of  Marseilles  runs  as 
follows :  Euxenus,  a  citizen  of  Phocsea,  coming  to  Gaul 
in  a  merchant  galley,  was  invited  by  a  Gallic  chief  to 
the  marriage  of  his  daughter;  according  to  the  cus- 
tom of  this  people,  the  young  girl  about  the  time  of 
the  feast  entered  bearing  a  cup  which  she  was  to  pre- 
sent to  the  one  whom  she  would  choose  for  a  husband ; 
she  stopped  before  the  Greek  and  offered  him  the  cup. 
This  unpremeditated  act  appeared  to  have  been  in- 
spired from  heaven;  the  Gallic  chief  gave  his  daugh- 
ter to  Euxenus  and  permitted  him  and  his  companions 
to  found  a  city  on  the  gulf  of  Marseilles.  Later  the 
Phocseans,  seeing  their  city  blockaded  by  the  Persian 
army,  loaded  on  their  ships  their  families,  their  mov- 
ables, the  statues  and  treasures  of  their  temple  and 
went  to  sea,  abandoning  their  city.  As  they  started, 
they  threw  into  the  sea  a  mass  of  red-hot  iron  and 
swore  never  to  return  to  Phocsea  until  the  iron  should 
rise  to  the  surface  of  the  water.  Many  violated  this 
oath  and  returned ;  but  the  rest  continued  the  voyage 
and  after  many  adventures  came  to  Marseilles. 

At  Miletus  the  lonians  who  founded  the  city  had 
brought  no  waives  with  them ;  they  seized  a  city  in- 
habited by  the  natives  of  Asia,  slaughtered  all  the  men. 


no  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

and  forcibly  married  the  women  and  girls  of  the  fam- 
ilies of  their  victims.  It  was  said  that  the  women, 
affronted  in  this  manner,  swore  never  to  eat  food  with 
their  captors  and  never  to  call  them  by  the  name  of 
husband;  this  custom  was  for  centuries  preserved 
among  the  women  of  Miletus.^ 

The  colony  at  Cyrene  in  Africa  was  founded  accord- 
ing to  the  express  command  of  the  oracle  of  Apollo. 
The  inhabitants  of  Thera,  who  had  received  this  order, 
did  not  care  to  go  to  an  unknown  country.  They 
yielded  only  at  the  end  of  seven  years  since  their  island 
was  afflicted  with  dearth;  they  believed  that  Apollo 
had  sent  misfortune  on  them  as  a  penalty.  Neverthe- 
less the  citizens  who  were  sent  out  attempted  to  aban- 
don the  enterprise,  but  their  fellow-citizens  attacked 
them  and  forced  them  to  return.  After  having  spent 
two  years  on  an  island  where  no  success  came  to  them, 
they  at  last  came  to  settle  at  Cyrene,  which  soon  be- 
came a  prosperous  city.^ 

Importance  of  the  Colonies. — Wherever  they  settled, 
the  colonists  constituted  a  new  state  which  in  no  re- 
spect obeyed  the  mother  town  from  which  they  had 
come  out.  And  so  the  whole  Mediterranean  found 
itself  surrounded  by  Greek  cities  independent  one  of 
the  others.  Of  these  cities  many  became  richer  and 
more  powerful  than  their  mother  towns;  they  had  a 
territory  which  was  larger  and  more  fertile,  and  in 
consequence  a  greater  population.  Sybaris,  it  was 
said,  had  300,000  men  who  were  capable  of  bearing 
arms.     Croton   could  place  in  the  field   an   infantry 

^  Probably  this  custom  has  another  origin  the  recollection  of 
which  was  lost. — Ed. 

2  Herodotus,  iv.,  150-158, 


GREECE   AND   THE   GREEKS  111 

force  of  120,000  men.  Syracuse  in  Sicily,  Miletus 
in  Asia  had  greater  armies  than  even  Sparta  and 
Athens.  South  Italy  was  termed  Great  Greece.  In 
comparison  with  this  great  country  fully  peopled  with 
Greek  colonies  the  home  country  was,  in  fact,  only  a 
little  Greece.  And  so  it  happened  that  the  Greeks 
were  much  more  numerous  in  the  neighboring  coun- 
tries than  in  Greece  proper;  and  among  these  people 
of  the  colonies  figure  a  good  share  of  the  most 
celebrated  names :  Homer,  Alcaeus,  Sappho,  Thales, 
Pythagoras,  Heraclitus,  Democritus,  Empedocles, 
Aristotle,  Archimedes,  Theocritus,  and  many  others. 


CHAPTER   X 
GREEK  RELIGION 

The  Gods.  Polytheism — The  Greeks,  like  the  an- 
cient Aryans,  believed  in  many  gods.  They  had 
neither  the  sentiment  of  infinity  nor  that  of  eternity; 
they  did  not  conceive  of  God  as  one  for  whom  the 
heavens  are  only  a  tent  and  the  earth  a  foot-stool.  To 
the  Greeks  every  force  of  nature — the  air,  the  sun, 
the  sea — was  divine,  and  as  they  did  not  conceive  of 
all  these  phenomena  as  produced  by  one  cause,  they 
assigned  each  to  a  particular  god.  This  is  the  reason 
that  they  believed  in  many  gods.  They  were  poly- 
theists. 

Anthropomorphism — Each  god  was  a  force  in  nature 
and  carried  a  distinct  name.  The  Greeks,  having  a 
lively  imagination,  figured  under  this  name  a  living 
being,  of  beautiful  form  and  human  characteristics. 
A  god  or  goddess  was  represented  as  a  beautiful  man 
or  woman.  When  Odysseus  or  Telemachus  met  a 
person  peculiarly  great  and  beautiful,  they  began  by 
asking  him  if  he  were  not  a  god.  Homer  in  describ- 
ing the  army  pictured  on  the  shield  of  Achilles  adds, 
"Ares  and  Athena  led  the  army,  both  clad  in  gold, 
beautiful  and  great,  as  becomes  the  gods,  for  men 
were  smaller."  Greek  gods  are  men ;  they  have  cloth- 
ing, palaces,  bodies  similar  to  ours ;  if  they  cannot  die, 
they  can  at  least  be  wounded.     Homer  relates  how 

112 


GREEK   RELIGION  113 

Ares,  the  god  of  war,  struck  by  a  warrior,  fled  howling 
with  pain.  This  fashion  of  making  gods  like  men  is 
what  is  called  Anthropomorphism. 

Mythology. — The  gods,  being  men,  have  parents, 
children,  property.  Their  mothers  were  goddesses, 
their  brothers  were  gods,  and  their  children  other  gods 
or  men  who  were  half  divine.  This  genealogy  of  the 
gods  is  what  is  called  the  Theogony.  The  gods  have 
also  a  history ;  we  are  told  the  story  of  their  birth,  the 
adventures  of  their  youth,  their  exploits.  Apollo,  for 
example,  was  born  on  the  island  of  Delos  to  which  his 
mother  Latona  had  fled ;  he  slew  a  monster  which  was 
desolating  the  country  at  the  foot  of  Parnassus.  Each 
canton  of  Greece  had  thus  its  tales  of  the  gods.  These 
are  called  myths ;  the  sum  of  them  is  termed  Mythol- 
ogy, or  the  history  of  the  gods. 

The  Local  Gods. — The  Greek  gods,  even  under  their 
human  form,  remained  what  they  were  at  first,  phe- 
nomena of  nature.  They  were  thought  of  both  as 
men  and  as  forces  of  nature.  The  Naiad  is  a  young 
woman,  but  at  the  same  time  a  bubbling  fountain. 
Homer  represents  the  river  Xanthus  as  a  god,  and  yet 
he  says,  "The  Xanthus  threw  itself  on  Achilles,  boil- 
ing with  fury,  full  of  tumult,  foam,  and  the  bodies  of 
the  dead."  The  people  itself  continued  to  say  "Zeus 
rains"  or  "Zeus  thunders."  To  the  Greek  the  god 
was  first  of  all  rain,  storm,  heaven,  or  sun,  and  not  the 
heaven,  sun,  or  earth  in  general,  but  that  corner  of  the 
heaven  under  which  he  lived,  the  land  of  his  canton, 
the  river  which  traversed  it.  Each  city,  then,  had  its 
divinities,  its  sun-god,  its  earth-goddess,  its  sea-god, 
and  these  are  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  sun,  the 


114  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

earth,  and  the  sea  of  the  neighboring  city.  The  Zeus 
of  Sparta  is  not  the  same  as  the  Zeus  of  Athens ;  in  the 
same  oath  one  sometimes  invokes  two  Athenas  or 
two  Apollos.  A  traveller  who  would  journey  through 
Greece^  would  therefore  meet  thousands  of  local  gods 
(they  called  them  Poliades,  or  gods  of  the  city).  No 
torrent,  no  wood,  no  mountain  was  without  its  own 
deity,^  although  often  a  minor  divinity,  adored  only  by 
the  people  of  the  vicinity  and  whose  sanctuary  was 
only  a  grotto  in  the  rock. 

The  Great  Gods. — Above  the  innumerable  legion  of 
local  gods  of  each  canton  the  Greeks  imagined  certain 
great  divinities — the  heaven,  the  sun,  the  earth,  and 
the  sea — and  these  everywhere  had  the  same  name,  and 
had  their  temple  or  sanctuary  in  every  place.  'Each 
represented  one  of  the  principal  forces  of  nature. 
These  gods  common  to  all  the  Greeks  were  never 
numerous ;  if  all  are  included,  we  have  hardly  twenty.^ 
We  have  the  bad  habit  of  calling  them  by  the  name  of 
a  Latin  god.  The  following  are  their  true  names: 
Zeus  (Jupiter),  Hera  (Juno),  Athena  (Minerva), 
Apollo,  Artemis  (Diana),  Hermes  (Mercury),  He- 
phaistos  (Vulcan),  Hestia  (Vesta),  Ares  (Mars), 
Aphrodite  (Venus),  Poseidon  (Neptune),  Amphi- 
trite,  Proteus,  Kronos  (Saturn),  Rhea  (Cybele), 
Demeter   (Ceres),  Persephone   (Proserpina),  Hades, 

^  See  the  account  of  the  traveller  Pausanias. 

2  "  There  are,"  says  Hesiod,  "  30,000  gods  on  the  fruitful  earth." 
^  Greek  scholars  formed  a  select  society  of  twelve  gods  and  god- 
desses, but  their  choice  was  arbitrary,  and  all  did  not  agree  on  the 
same  series.  The  Greeks  of  different  countries  and  of  different 
epochs  often  represented  the  same  god  under  different  forms. 
Further,  the  majority  of  the  gods  seem  to  us  to  have  vague  and 
undetermined  attributes ;  this  is  because  they  were  not  the  same 
everywhere. 


GREEK   RELIGION  115 

(Pluto),  Dionysos  (Bacchus).  It  is  this  Httle  group 
of  gods  that  men  worshipped  in  all  the  temples,  that 
men  ordinarily  invoked  in  their  prayers. 

Attributes  of  the  Gods. — Each  of  these  great  gods 
had  his  form,  his  costume,  his  instruments  (which  we 
call  his  attributes)  ;  it  is  thus  that  the  faithful  imagined 
him  and  that  the  sculptors  represented  him.  Each 
has  his  character  which  is  well  known  to  his  worship- 
pers. Each  has  his  role  in  the  world,  performing  his 
determined  functions,  ordinarily  with  the  aid  of  sec- 
ondary divinities  who  obey  him. 

Athena,  virgin  of  clear  eye,  is  represented  standing, 
armed  with  a  lance,  a  helmet  on  the  head,  and  gleam- 
ing armor  on  the  breast.  She  is  the  goddess  of  the 
clear  air,  of  wisdom,  and  of  invention,  a  goddess  of 
dignity  and  majesty. 

Hephaistos,  the  god  of  fire,  is  figured  with  a  ham- 
mer and  in  the  form  of  a  lame  and  ugly  blacksmith. 
It  is  he  who  forges  the  thunderbolt. 

Artemis,  shy  maiden,  armed  with  bow  and  quiver, 
courses  the  forests  hunting  with  a  troop  of  nymphs. 
She  is  the  goddess  of  the  woods,  of  the  chase,  and  of 
death. 

Hermes,  represented  with  winged  sandals,  is  the 
god  of  the  fertile  showers.  But  he  has  other  offices; 
he  is  the  god  of  streets  and  squares,  the  god  of  com- 
merce, of  theft,  and  of  eloquence.  He  it  is  who  guides 
the  souls  of  the  dead,  the  messenger  of  the  gods,  the 
deity  presiding  over  the  breeding  of  cattle. 

Almost  always  a  Greek  god  has  several  functions, 
quite  dissimilar  to  our  eyes,  but  to  the  Greeks  bearing 
some  relation  to  one  another. 


116  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Olympus  and  Zeus. — Each  one  of  these  gods  is  Hke 
a  king  in  his  own  domain.  Still  the  Greeks  had  re- 
marked that  all  the  forces  of  nature  do  not  operate  by 
chance  and  that  they  act  in  harmony;  the  same  word 
served  them  for  the  idea  of  order  and  of  universe. 
They  supposed,  then,  that  the  gods  were  in  accord  for 
the  administration  of  the  world,  and  that  they,  like 
men,  had  laws  and  government  among  them. 

In  the  north  of  Greece  there  was  a  mountain  to 
whose  snowy  summit  no  man  had  ever  climbed.  This 
was  Olympus.  On  this  summit,  which  was  hidden  by 
clouds  from  the  eyes  of  men,  it  was  imagined  the  gods 
assembled.  Meeting  under  the  light  of  heaven,  they 
conferred  on  the  affairs  of  the  world.  Zeus,  the 
mightiest  of  them,  presided  over  the  gathering:  he 
was  god  of  the  heavens  and  of  the  light,  the  god  "who 
masses  the  clouds,"  who  launches  the  thunderbolt — an 
old  man  of  majestic  mien,  with  long  beard,  sitting  on 
a  throne  of  gold.  It  is  he  who  commands  and  the 
other  gods  bow  before  him.  Should  they  essay  to 
resist,  Zeus  menaces  them ;  Homer  makes  him  say,^ 
''Bind  to  heaven  a  chain  of  gold,  and  all  of  you,  gods 
or  goddesses,  throw  your  weight  upon  it;  all  your 
united  efforts  cannot  draw  Zeus,  the  sovereign  or- 
dainer,  to  the  earth.  On  the  contrary,  if  I  wished  to 
draw  the  chain  to  myself,  I  should  bring  with  it  the 
earth  and  the  very  sea.  Then  I  would  attach  it  to 
the  summit  of  Olympus  and  all  the  universe  would  be 
suspended.  By  so  much  am  I  superior  to  gods  and 
men." 

Morality  of  the  Greek  Mythology The  greater  part 

*  Iliad,  viij.,  i8. 


GREEK   RELIGION  117 

of  their  gods  were  conceived  by  the  Greeks  as  vio- 
lent, sanguinary,  deceitful,  dissolute.  They  ascribed 
to  them  scandalous  adventures  or  dishonest  acts. 
Hermes  was  notorious  for  his  thieving,  Aphrodite  for 
her  coquetry,  Ares  for  his  ferocity.  AH  were  so  vain 
as  to  persecute  those  who  neglected  to  offer  sacrifices 
to  them.  Niobe  had  seen  all  her  children  pierced  with 
arrows  by  Apollo  because  she  herself  had  boasted  of 
her  numerous  family.  The  gods  were  so  jealous  that 
they  could  not  endure  seeing  a  man  thoroughly  happy ; 
prosperity  for  the  Greeks  was  the  greatest  of  dangers, 
for  it  never  failed  to  draw  the  anger  of  the  gods,  and 
this  anger  became  a  goddess  (Nemesis)  about  whom 
were  told  such  anecdotes  as  the  following :  Once  Polyc- 
rates  of  Samos,  become,  very  powerful,  feared  the 
jealousy  of  the  gods ;  and  so  a  ring  of  gold  which  he 
still  retained  was  cast  into  the  sea  that  his  good  fortune 
might  not  be  unmixed  with  evil.  Some  time  after,  a 
fisherman  brought  to  Polycrates  an  enormous  fish  and 
in  its  belly  w^as  found  the  ring.  This  w^as  a  certain 
presage  of  evil.  Polycrates  was  besieged  in  his  city, 
taken,  and  crucified.  The  gods  punished  him  for  his 
good  fortune. 

Greek  mythology  w^as  immoral  in  that  the  gods  gave 
bad  examples  to  men.  The  Greek  philosophers  were 
already  saying  this  and  were  inveighing  against  the 
poets  who  had  published  these  stories.  A  disciple  of 
Pythagoras  affirmed  that  his  master,  descending  to 
hell,  had  seen  the  soul  of  Homer  hanging  to  a  tree  and 
,  that  of  Hesiod  bound  to  a  column  to  punish  them  for 
calumniating  the  gods.  ''Homer  and  Hesiod,"  said 
Xenophanes,  "attribute  to  the  gods  all  the  acts  which 


118  ANCIENT    CIVILIZATION 

among  men  are  culpable  and  shameful;  there  is  but 
one  god  who  neither  in  body  nor  in  soul  resembles 
men."  And  he  added  this  profound  remark  :  "If  oxen 
and  lions  had  hands  and  could  manipulate  like  men, 
they  would  have  made  gods  with  bodies  similar  to 
their  own,  horses  would  have  framed  gods  with  horses' 
bodies,  and  cattle  with  cattle's.  .  .  .  Men  think  that 
the  gods  have  their  feelings,  their  voice,  and  their 
body."  Xenophanes  was  right;  the  primitive  Greeks 
had  created  their  gods  in  their  own  image.  As  they 
were  then  sanguinary,  dissolute,  jealous,  and  vain, 
their  gods  were  the  same.  Later,  as  the  people  be- 
came better,  their  descendants  were  shocked  with  all 
these  vices;  but  the  history  and  the  character  of  the 
gods  were  fixed  by  the  ancient  traditions,  and  later 
generations,  without  daring  to  change  them,  had  re- 
ceived the  gross  and  dishonest  gods  of  their  ancestors. 


THE  HEROES 

The  Hero. — The  hero  in  Greece  is  a  man  who  has 
become  illustrious,  and  after  death  a  mighty  spirit — 
not  a  god,  but  a  demi-god.  The  heroes  do  not  live  on 
Olympus  in  the  heaven  of  the  gods,  they  do  not  direct 
the  life  of  the  world.  And  yet  they,  too,  possess  a 
power  higher  than  that  of  any  human,  and  this  per- 
mits them  to  aid  their  friends  and  destroy  their  ene- 
mies. For  this  reason  the  Greeks  rendered  them  wor- 
ship as  to  the  gods  and  implored  their  protection. 
There  was  not  a  city,  not  a  tribe,  not  a  family  but  had 
its  hero,  a  protecting  spirit  which  it  adored. 


GREEK   RELIGION  119 

Different  Kinds  of  Heroes. — Of  these  heroes  many 
are  legendary  persons  (Achilles,  Odysseus,  Agamem- 
non) ;  some  without  doubt  never  existed  (Herakles, 
CEdipus)  ;  others  like  Hellen,  Dorus,  yEolus  are  only 
names.  But  their  worshippers  regarded  them  as  men 
of  the  olden  time ;  and,  in  fact,  the  most  of  the  heroes 
lived  at  one  time.  ]\Iany  are  historical  personages : 
generals  like  Leonidas,  Lysander;  philosophers  like 
Democritus  and  Aristotle;  legislators  like  Lycurgus 
and  Solon.  The  people  of  Croton  adored  even  one  of 
their  fellow-citizens,  Philip  by  name,  because  he  had 
been  in  his  time  the  most  beautiful  man  in  Greece. 
The  leader  who  had  guided  a  band  of  colonists  and 
founded  a  city  became  for  the  inhabitants  the  Founder ; 
a  temple  was  raised  to  him  and  every  year  sacrifices 
were  offered  to  him.  The  iVthenian  Miltiades  was 
thus  worshipped  in  a  city  of  Thrace.  The  Spartiate 
Brasidas,  killed  in  the  defence  of  Amphipolis,  had 
divine  honors  paid  to  him  in  that  city,  for  the  inhab- 
itants had  come  to  regard  him  as  their  Founder. 

Presence  of  the  Heroes. — The  hero  continued  to  re- 
side in  the  place  where  his  body  was  interred,  either  in 
his  tomb  or  in  the  neighborhood.  A  story  told  by 
Herodotus  (v.  6y)  depicts  this  belief  in  a  lively  way. 
The  city  of  Sicyon  adored  the  hero  Adrastus  and  in  a 
public  place  was  a  chapel  dedicated  to  his  honor. 
Cleisthenes,  the  tyrant  of  Sicyon,  took  a  fancy  to  rid 
himself  of  this  hero.  He  went  to  the  oracle  at  Delphi 
to  ask  if  it  would  aid  him  in  expelling  Adrastus.  The 
oracle  replied  to  his  question  that  i\drastus  w^as  king 
of  the  Sicyonians  and  Cleisthenes  was  a  brigand. 
The  tyrant,  not  daring  to  evict  the  hero,  adopted  a 


120  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

ruse;  he  sent  to  Thebes  to  seek  the  bones  of  Melanip- 
pas,  another  hero,  and  installed  them  with  great  pomp 
in  the  sanctuary  of  the  city.  *'He  did  this,"  says  He- 
rodotus, ''because  Melanippus  during  his  life  had  been 
the  greatest  enemy  of  Adrastus  and  had  killed  his 
brother  and  his  son-in-law."  Then  he  transferred  to 
Melanippus  the  festivals  and  the  sacrifices  formerly 
paid  to  the  honor  of  Adrastus.  He  was  persuaded, 
and  all  the  Greeks  with  him,  that  the  hero  would  be 
irritated  and  would  flee. 

Intervention  of  the  Heroes. — The  heroes  have  divine 
power ;  like  the  gods,  they  can  according  to  their  whim 
send  good  or  evil.  The  poet  Stesichorus  had  spoken  ill 
of  the  famous  Helen  (that  Helen  who  the  legend  states 
was  carried  away  to  Troy)  ;  he  suddenly  became  blind ; 
when  he  retracted  what  he  had  said,  the  heroine  re- 
stored his  sight. 

The  protecting  heroes  of  a  city  kept  it  from  plagues 
and  famine  and  even  fought  against  its  enemies.  At 
the  battle  of  the  Marathon  the  Athenian  soldiers  saw  in 
the  midst  of  them  Theseus,  the  mythical  founder  of 
Athens,  clad  In  shining  armor.  During  the  battle  of 
Salamis  the  heroes  Ajax  and  Telamon,  once  kings 
of  Salamis,  appeared  on  the  highest  point  of  the  island 
extending  their  hands  to  the  Greek  fleet.  *Tt  is  not 
we,"  said  Themlstocles,  ''that  have  vanquished  the 
Persians ;  it  is  the  gods  and  heroes."  In  "QEdlpus  at 
Colonus,"  a  tragedy  of  Sophocles,  GEdipus  at  the  point 
of  death  receives  the  visit  of  the  king  of  Athens  and 
of  the  king  of  Thebes,  both  of  whom  as  gods  request 
him  to  have  his  body  Interred  in  their  territory,  and  to 
become  a  protecting  hero.     CEdipus  at  last  consents  to 


GREEK   RELIGION  121 

be  buried  in  the  soil  of  the  Athenians,  and  says  to  the 
king,  "Dead,  I  shall  not  be  a  useless  inhabitant  of  this 
country,  I  shall  be  a  rampart  for  you,  stronger  than 
millions  of  warriors."  In  himself  alone  a  hero  was 
as  efficient  as  a  whole  army;  his  spirit  was  mightier 
than  all  living  men. 


WORSHIP 

Principles  of  Worship  of  the  Gods Gods  and  he- 
roes, potent  as  they  were,  bestowed  on  men  all  good  or 
evil  fortune  according  to  their  will.  It  was  danger- 
ous to  have  them  against  you,  wise  to  have  them  on 
your  side.  They  were  conceived  as  like  men,  irritated 
if  they  were  neglected,  contented  if  they  were  vene- 
rated. On  this  principle  worship  was  based.  It  con- 
sisted in  doing  things  agreeable  to  the  gods  to  obtain 
their  favor.  Plato  expresses  as  follows^  the  thought 
of  the  common  man,  *'To  know  how  to  say  and  do 
those  things  that  are  pleasing  to  the  gods,  either  in 
prayers  or  in  offerings,  this  is  piety  which  brings  pros- 
perity to  individuals  and  to  states.  The  reverse  is 
impiety  which  ruins  everything."  'Tt  is  natural," 
says  Xenophon  at  the  end  of  his  treatise  on  Cavalry, 
"that  the  gods  should  favor  those  especially  who  not 
only  consult  them  in  need,  but  honor  them  in  the  day 
of  prosperity."  Religion  was  first  of  all  a  contract ; 
the  Greek  sought  to  delight  the  gods  and  in  return 
required  their  services.  "For  a  long  time,"  says  a 
priest  of  Apollo  to  his  god,  'T  have  burned  fat  bullocks 

^  In  the  dialogue  "Eutyphron." 


122  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

for  you;  now  grant  my  petitions  and  discharge  your 
arrows  against  my  enemies." 

The  Great  Festivals.— Since  the  gods  had  the  feel- 
ings of  men  they  were  to  be  pleased  in  the  same  way  as 
men.  Wine,  cakes,  fruits,  food  were  brought  to  them. 
Palaces  were  built  for  them.  Festivals  were  given 
in  their  honor,  for  they  were  "joyous  gods"  who  loved 
pleasure  and  beautiful  spectacles.  A  festival  was  not, 
as  with  us,  purely  an  occasion  of  rejoicing,  but  a  relig- 
ious ceremony.  On  those  days  free  from  the  daily 
toil  men  were  required  to  rejoice  in  public  before  the 
god.  The  Greek,  without  doubt,  delighted  in  these 
fetes ;  but  it  is  for  the  god  and  not  for  himself  that  he 
celebrates  them.  "The  lonians,"  says  an  ancient 
hymn  to  Apollo,  "delight  thee  with  trial  of  strength, 
the  hymn,  and  the  dance." 

The  Sacred  Games. — From  these  diversions  offered 
to  the  gods  originated  the  solemn  games.  Each  city 
had  them  to  the  honor  of  its  gods ;  ordinarily  only  its 
citizens  were  admitted  to  them ;  but  in  four  districts  of 
Greece  were  celebrated  games  at  which  all  Greeks 
could  be  present  and  participate.  These  are  called 
the  Four  Great  Games. 

The  principal  of  these  four  festivals  was  that  at 
Olympia.  This  was  given  every  four  years  in  honor 
of  Zeus  and  continued  five  or  six  days.  The  multi- 
tude coming  from  all  parts  of  Greece  filled  the  amphi- 
theatre. They  commenced  by  sacrificing  victims  and 
addressing  prayers  to  Zeus  and  the  other  gods.  Then 
came  the  contests ;  they  were : 

The  foot-race  around  the  stadion. 

The  Pentathlon,  so  called  because  it  comprised  five 


GREEK   RELIGION  123 

exercises.  The  competitors  were  to  leap,  run  from 
one  end  of  the  stadion  to  the  other,  make  a  long  throw 
of  the  metal  discus,  hurl  the  javelin,  and  wrestle. 

Boxing,  in  which  one  fought  with  arms  bound  with 
thongs  of  hide. 

The  chariot  races,  which  were  held  in  the  hippo- 
drome; the  cars  were  light  and  were  drawn  by  four 
horses. 

The  judges  of  the  games  were  clothed  in  purple, 
crowned  with  laurel.  After  the  combat  a  herald  pro- 
claimed before  the  whole  assembly  the  name  of  the 
victor  and  of  his  city.  A  crown  of  olive  was  the  only 
reward  given  him ;  but  his  fellow-citizens  on  his  return 
received  him  as  a  conquering  hero;  sometimes  they 
threw  down  a  section  of  the  city  wall  to  give  him 
entrance.  He  arrived  in  a  chariot  drawn  by  four 
horses,  clothed  in  purple,  escorted  by  all  the  people. 
*'These  victories  which  we  leave  today  to  the  athletes 
of  the  public  shows  appeared  then  the  greatest  of  all. 
Poets  of  greatest  renown  celebrated  them ;  Pindar,  the 
most  illustrious  lyric  poet  of  antiquity,  has  hardly  done 
more  than  sing  of  chariot  races.  It  is  related  that  a 
certain  Diagoras,  who  had  seen  his  two  sons  crowned 
on  the  same  day,  was  borne  in  triumph  by  them  in  the 
sight  of  the  spectators.  The  people,  holding  such  an 
honor  too  great  for  a  mortal,  cried  out,  'Perish,  Diago- 
ras, for  after  all  you  cannot  become  a  god.'  Diagoras, 
suffocated  with  emotion,  died  in  the  arms  of  his  sons. 
In  his  eyes  and  the  eyes  of  the  Greeks  the  fact  that  his 
sons  possessed  the  stoutest  fists  and  the  nimblest  limbs 
in  Greece  was  the  acme  of  earthly  happiness."  ^  The 
iTaine,  "Philosophy  of  Art.'- 


124  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Greeks  had  their  reasons  for  thus  admiring  physical 
prowess:  in  their  wars  in  which  they  fought  hand  to 
hand  the  most  vigorous  athletes  were  the  best  soldiers. 

Omens. — In  return  for  so  much  homage,  so  many 
festivals  and  offerings,  the  Greeks  expected  no  small 
amount  of  service  from  their  gods.  The  gods  pro- 
tected their  worshippers,  gave  them  health,  riches,  vic- 
tory. They  preserved  them  from  the  evils  that  men- 
aced them,  sending  signs  which  men  interpreted. 
These  are  called  Omens.  *'When  a  city,"  says  He- 
rodotus,^ "is  about  to  suffer  some  great  misfortune, 
this  is  usually  anticipated  by  signs.  The  people  of 
Chios  had  omens  of  their  defeat :  of  a  band  of  one 
hundred  youths  sent  to  Delphi  but  two  returned;  the 
others  had  died  of  the  plague.  About  the  same  time 
the  roof  of  a  school  of  the  city  fell  on  the  children  who 
were  learning  to  read ;  but  one  escaped  of  the  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty.  Such  were  the  anticipating  signs 
sent  them  by  the  deity." 

The  Greeks  regarded  as  supernatural  signs,  dreams, 
the  flight  of  birds  in  the  heavens,  the  entrails  of  ani- 
mals sacrificed — in  a  word,  everything  that  they  saw, 
from  the  tremblings  of  the  earth  and  eclipses  to  a  sim- 
ple sneeze.  In  the  expedition  to  Sicily,  Nicias,  the 
general  of  the  Athenians,  at  the  moment  of  embarking 
his  army  for  the  retreat,  was  arrested  by  an  eclipse  of 
the  moon ;  the  gods,  thought  he,  had  sent  this  prodigy 
to  warn  the  Athenians  not  to  continue  their  enterprise. 
And  so  Nicias  waited;  he  waited  twenty-seven  days 
offering  sacrifices  to  appease  the  gods.  During  this 
inactivity  the  enemy  closed  the  port,  destroyed  the 
*  Herodotus,  vi.,  27. 


GREEK   RELIGION  125 

fleet,  and  exterminated  his  army.  The  Athenians  on 
learning  this  news  found  but  one  thing  with  which  to 
reproach  Nicias :  he  should  have  know^n  that  for  an 
army  in  retreat  the  eclipse  of  the  moon  was  a  favor- 
able sign.  During  the  retreat  of  the  Ten  Thousand, 
Xenophon,  the  general,  making  an  address  to  his  sol- 
diers, uttered  this  sentiment:  "With  the  help  of  the 
gods  we  have  the  surest  hope  that  we  shall  save  our- 
selves with  glory."  At  this  point  a  soldier  sneezed. 
At  once  all  adored  the  god  who  had  sent  this  omen. 
''Since  at  the  very  instant  when  we  are  deliberating 
concerning  our  safety,"  exclaimed  Xenophon,  "Zeus 
the  savior  has  sent  us  an  omen,  let  us  with  one  con- 
sent offer  sacrifices  to  him."  ^ 

The  Oracles. — Often  the  god  replies  to  the  faithful 
who  consult  him  not  by  a  mute  sign,  but  by  the  mouth 
of  an  inspired  person.  The  faithful  enter  the  sanc- 
tuary of  the  god  seeking  responses  and  counsel.  These 
are  Oracles. 

There  were  oracles  in  many  places  in  Greece  and 
Asia.  The  most  noted  were  at  Dodona  in  Epirus,  and 
at  Delphi,  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Parnassus.  At  Do- 
dona it  was  Zeus  who  spoke  by  the  rustling  of  the 
sacred  oaks.  At  Delphi  it  was  Apollo  who  was  con- 
sulted. Below  his  temple,  in  a  grotto,  a  current  of 
cool  air  issued  from  a  rift  in  the  ground.  This  air 
the  Greeks  thought-  was  sent  by  the  god,  for  he  threw 
into  a  frenzy  those  who  inhaled  it.  A  tripod  was 
placed  over  the  orifice,  a  woman  (the  Pythia),  pre- 
pared by  a  bath  in  the  sacred  spring,  took  her  seat  on 

^  Xenophon,  "Anabasis,"  iii.,  2. 

2  This  idea  gained  currency  only  in  the  later  periods  of  Grecian 
history. — Ed. 


126  ANCIENT    CIVILIZATION 

the  tripod,  and  received  the  inspiration.  At  once, 
seized  with  a  nervous  frenzy,  she  uttered  cries  and 
broken  sentences.  Priests  sitting  about  her  caught 
these  expressions,  set  them  to  verse,  and  brought  them 
to  him  who  sought  advice  of  the  god. 

The  oracles  of  the  Pythia  were  often  obscure  and 
ambiguous.  '  When  Crcesus  asked  if  he  should  make 
war  on  the  Persians,  the  reply  was,  "Croesus  will  de- 
stroy a  great  empire."  In  fact,  a  great  empire  was 
destroyed,  but  it  was  that  of  Croesus. 

The  Spartans  had  great  confidence  in  the  Pythia, 
and  never  initiated  ar  expedition  without  consulting 
her.  The  other  Greeks  imitated  them,  and  Delphi 
thus  became  a  sort  of  national  oracle. 

Amphictyonies. — To  protect  the  sanctuary  of  Delphi 
twelve  of  the  principal  peoples  of  Greece  had  formed 
an  association  called  an  Amphictyony.^  Every  year 
deputies  from  these  peoples  assembled  at  Delphi  to 
celebrate  the  festival  of  Apollo  and  see  that  the  temple 
was  not  threatened;  for  this  temple  contained  im- 
mense wealth,  a  temptation  to  pillage  it.  In  the  sixth 
century  the  people  of  Cirrha,  a  neighboring  city  of 
Delphi,  appropriated  these  treasures.^  The  Amphic- 
tyons  declared  war  against  them  for  sacrilege.  Cirrha 
was  taken  and  destroyed,  the  inhabitants  sold  as  slaves, 
the  territory  left  fallow.  In  the  fourth  century  the 
Amphictyons  made  war  on  the  Phocidians  also  who 
had  seized  the  treasury  of  Delphi,  and  on  the  people 
of  Amphissa  who  had  tilled  a  field  dedicated  to  Apollo. 

^  There  were  similar  amphictyonies  at  Delos,  Calauria,  and 
Onchestus. 

^  The  special  charge  against  Cirrha  was  the  levying  of  toll  on 
pilgrims  coming  to  Delphi. — Ed. 


GREEK   RELIGION  127 

Still  it  is  not  necessary  to  believe  that  the  assembly 
of  the  Amphictyons  ever  resembled  a  Greek  senate. 
It  was  concerned  only  with  the  temple  of  Apollo,  not  at 
all  with  political  affairs.  It  did  not  even  prevent 
members  of  the  Amphictyony  fighting  one  another. 
The  oracle  and  the  Amphictyony  of  Delphi  were  more 
potent  than  the  other  oracles  and  the  other  amphic- 
tyonies ;  but  they  never  united  the  Greeks  into  a  single 
nation. 


CHAPTER   XI 
SPARTA 

THE  PEOPLE 

Laconia. — When  the  Dorian  mountaineers  invaded 
the  Peloponnesus,  the  main  body  of  them  settled  at 
Sparta  in  Laconia.  Laconia  is  a  narrow  valley  trav- 
ersed by  a  considerable  stream  (the  Eurotas)  flowing 
between  two  massive  mountain  ranges  with  snowy 
summits.  A  poet  describes  the  country  as  follows :  "A 
land  rich  in  tillable  soil,  but  hard  to  cultivate,  deep  set 
among  perpendicular  mountains,  rough  in  aspect,  in- 
accessible to  invasion."  In  this  enclosed  country  lived 
the  Dorians  of  Sparta  in  the  midst  of  the  ancient  in- 
habitants who  had  become,  some  their  subjects,  others 
their  serfs.  There  were,  then,  in  Laconia  three 
classes :  Helots,  Perioeci,  Spartiates. 

The  Helots — The  Helots  dwelt  in  the  cottages  scat- 
tered in  the  plain  and  cultivated  the  soil.  But  the 
land  did  not  belong  to  them — indeed,  they  were  not 
even  free  to  leave  it.  They  were,  like  the  serfs  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  peasants  attached  to  the  soil,  from  father 
to  son.  They  labored  for  a  Spartiate  proprietor  who 
took  from  them  the  greater  part  of  the  harvest.  The 
Spartiates  instructed  them,  feared  them,  and  ill  treated 
them.     They  compelled  them  to  wear  rude  garments, 

128 


SPARTA  129 

beat  them  unreasonably  to  remind  them  of  their  ser- 
vile condition,  and  sometimes  made  them  intoxicated 
to  disgust  their  children  with  the  sight  of  drunken- 
ness. A  Spartiate  poet  compares  the  Helots  to 
^'loaded  asses  stumbling  under  their  burdens  and  the 
blows  inflicted." 

The  PericEci — The  Perioeci  (those  who  live  around) 
inhabited  a  hundred  villages  in  the  mountains  or  on 
the  coast.  They  were  sailors,  they  engaged  in  com- 
merce, and  manufactured  the  objects  necessary  to  life. 
They  were  free  and  administered  the  business  of  their 
village,  but  they  paid  tribute  to  the  magistrates  of 
Sparta  and  obeyed  them. 

Condition  of  the  Spartiates — Helots  and  Periceci 
despised  the  Spartiates,  their  masters.  "Whenever 
one  speaks  to  them  of  the  Spartiates,"  says  Xenophon,^ 
*'there  isn't  one  of  them  who  can  conceal  the  pleasure 
he  would  feel  in  eating  them  alive."  Once  an  earth- 
quake nearly  destroyed  Sparta:  the  Helots  at  once 
rushed  from  all  sides  of  the  plain  to  massacre  those  of 
the  Spartiates  who  had  escaped  the  catastrophe.  At 
the  same  time  the  Perioeci  rose  and  refused  obedience. 
The  Spartiates'  bearing  toward  the  Periceci  was  cer- 
tain to  exasperate  them.  At  the  end  of  a  war  in  which 
many  of  the  Helots  had  fought  in  their  army,  they 
bade  them  choose  those  who  had  especially  distin- 
guished themselves  for  bravery,  with  the  promise  of 
freeing  them.  It  was  a  ruse  to  discover  the  most  ener- 
getic and  those  most  capable  of  revolting.  Two  thou- 
sand were  chosen;  they  were  conducted  about  the 
temples  with  heads  crowned  as  an  evidence  of  their 
^  "Hellenica,''  iii.,  3,  6. 


130  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

manumission ;  then  the  Spartiates  put  them  out  of  the 
way,  but  how  it  was  done  no  one  ever  knew.^ 

And  yet  the  oppressed  classes  were  ten  times  more 
numerous  than  their  masters.  While  there  were  more 
than  200,000  Helots  and  120,000  Perioeci,  there  were 
never  more  than  9,000  Spartiate  heads  of  families.  In 
a  matter  of  life  and  death,  then,  it  was  necessary  that 
a  Spartiate  be  as  good  as  ten  Helots.  As  the  form  of 
battle  was  hand-to-hand,  they  needed  agile  and  robust 
men.  Sparta  was  like  a  camp  without  walls;  its  peo- 
ple was  an  army  always  in  readiness. 


EDUCATION 

The  Children — They  began  to  make  soldiers  of 
them  at  birth.  The  newly-born  infant  was  brought 
before  a  council ;  if  it  was  found  deformed,  it  was  ex- 
posed on  the  mountain  to  die;  for  an  army  has  use 
only  for  strong  men.  The  children  who  were  per- 
mitted to  grow  up  were  taken  from  their  parents  at 
the  age  of  seven  years  and  were  trained  together  as 
members  of  a  group.  Both  summer  and  winter  they 
went  bare-foot  and  had  but  a  single  mantle.  They 
lay  on  a  heap  of  reeds  and  bathed  in  the  cold  waters  of 
the  Eurotas.  They  ate  little  and  that  quickly  and  had 
a  rude  diet.  This  was  to  teach  them  not  to  satiate 
the  stomach.  They  were  grouped  by  hundreds,  each 
under  a  chief.  Often  they  had  to  contend  together 
with  blows  of  feet  and  fists.  At  the  feast  of  Artemis 
they  were  beaten  before  the  statue  of  the  goddess  till 

»  See  Thucydides,  iv.,  80. 


SPARTA  131 

the  blood  flowed;  some  died  under  this  ordeal,  but 
their  honor  required  them  not  to  weep.  They  were 
taught  to  fight  and  suffer. 

Often  they  were  given  nothing  to  eat;  provision 
must  be  found  by  foraging.  If  they  were  captured  on 
these  predatory  expeditions,  they  were  roughly  beaten. 
A  Spartiate  boy  who  had  stolen  a  little  fox  and  had 
hidden  it  under  his  mantle,  rather  than  betray  himself 
let  the  animal  gnaw  out  his  vitals.  They  were  to 
learn  how  to  escape  from  perplexing  situations  when 
they  were  in  the  field. 

They  w^alked  with  lowered  glance,  silent,  hands 
under  the  mantle,  without  turning  the  head  and  "mak- 
ing no  more  noise  than  statues."  They  were  not  to 
speak  at  table  and  were  to  obey  all  men  that  they 
encountered.  This  was  to  accustom  them  to  dis- 
cipline. 

The  Girls — The  other  Greeks  kept  their  daughters 
secluded  in  the  house,  spinning  flax.  The  Spartiates 
would  have  robust  women  capable  of  bearing  vigorous 
children.  The  girls,  therefore,  were  trained  in  much 
the  same  manner  as  the  boys.  In  their  gymnasia  they 
practised  running,  leaping,  throwing  the  disc  and  jav- 
elin. A  poet  describes  a  play  in  which  Spartiate  girls 
"like  colts  with  flowing  manes  make  the  dust  fly 
about  them."  They  were  reputed  the  healthiest  and 
bravest  women  in  Greece. 

The  Discipline. — The  men,  too,  have  their  regular 
life  and  this  a  soldier's  life.  The  presence  of  many 
enemies  requires  that  no  one  shall  weaken.  At  seven- 
teen years  the  Spartiate  becomes  a  soldier  and  this  he 
remains  until  he  is  sixty.     The  costume,  hour  of  rising 


132  ANCIENT    CIVILIZATION 

and  retiring,  meals,  exercise — everything  is  fixed  by 
regulations  as  in  barracks. 

Since  the  Spartiate  engages  only  in  war,  he  is  to 
prepare  himself  for  that;  he  exercises  himself  in  run- 
ning, leaping,  and  wielding  his  arms ;  he  disciplines  all 
the  members  of  the  body — the  neck,  the  arms,  the 
shoulders,  the  legs,  and  that  too,  every  day.  He  has 
no  right  to  engage  in  trade,  to  pursue  an  industry,  nor 
to  cultivate  the  earth ;  he  is  a  soldier  and  is  not  to  allow 
himself  to  be  diverted  to  any  other  occupation.  He 
cannot  live  at  his  pleasure  with  his  own  family;  the 
men  eat  together  in  squads;  they  cannot  leave  the 
country  without  permission.  It  is  the  discipline  of  a 
regiment  in  the  enemy's  territory. 

Laconism. — These  warriors  had  a  rude  life,  with 
clean-cut  aims  and  proud  disposition.  They  spoke  in 
short  phrases — or  as  we  say,  laconically — the  word 
has  still  persisted.  The  Greeks  cited  many  examples 
of  these  expressions.  To  a  garrison  in  danger  of 
being  surprised  the  government  sent  this  message, 
"Attention !"  A  Spartan  army  was  summoned  by  the 
king  of  Persia  to  lay  down  his  arms ;  the  general  re- 
plied, "Come  and  take  them."  When  Lysander  cap- 
tured Athens,  he  wrote  simply,  "Athens  is  fallen." 

Music.  The  Dance. — The  arts  of  Sparta  were  those 
that  pertained  to  an  army.  The  Dorian  conquerors 
brought  with  them  a  peculiar  sort  of  music — the  Dor- 
ian style,  serious,  strong,  even  harsh.  It  was  military 
music ;  the  Spartiates  went  into  battle  to  the  sound  of 
the  flute  so  that  the  step  might  be  regular. 

Their  dance  was  a  military  movement.  In  the 
"Pyrrhic"  the  dancers  were  armed  and  imitated  all  the 


SPARTA  133 

movements  of  a  battle;  they  made  the  gestures  of 
striking,  of  parrying,  of  retreating,  and  of  throwing 
the  javehn. 

Heroism  of  the  Women — The  women  stimulated  the 
men  to  combat ;  their  exhibitions  of  courage  were  cele- 
brated in  Greece,  so  much  so  that  collections  of  stories 
of  them  were  made.-"^  A  Spartan  mother,  seeing  her 
son  fleeing  from  battle,  killed  him  with  her  own 
hand,  saying,  "The  Eurotas  does  not  flow  for  deer." 
Another,  learning  that  her  five  sons  had  perished,  said, 
"This  is  not  what  I  wish  to  know ;  does  victory  belong 
to  Sparta?"  "Yes."  "Then  let  us  render  thanks  to 
the  gods." 

THE    INSTITUTIONS    OF    SPARTA 

The  Kings  and  the  Council. — The  Spartiates  had  at 
first,  like  the  other  Greeks,  an  assembly  of  the  people. 
All  these  institutions  were  preserved,  but  only  in  form. 
The  kings,  descendants  of  the  god  Herakles,  were 
loaded  with  honors ;  they  were  given  the  first  place  at 
the  feasts  and  were  served  with  a  double  portion; 
w^hen  they  died  all  the  inhabitants  made  lamentation 
for  them.  But  no  power  was  left  to  them  and  they 
were  closely  watched. 

The  Senate  was  composed  of  twenty-eight  old  men 
taken  from  the  rich  and  ancient  families,  appointed 
for  life ;  but  it  did  not  govern. 

The  Ephors. — The  real  masters  of  Sparta  were  the 
Ephors  (the  name  signifies  overseers),  five  magistrates 
who  were  renewed  every  year.     They  decided  peace 

*  A  collection  by  Plutarch  is  still  preserved. 


134  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

and  war,  and  had  judicial  functions;  when  the  king 
commanded  the  army,  they  accompanied  him,  directed 
the  operations,  and  sometimes  made  him  return.  Usu- 
ally they  consulted  the  senators  and  took  action  in 
harmony  with  them.  Then  they  assembled  the  Spar- 
tiates  in  one  place,  announced  to  them  what  had  been 
decided  and  asked  their  approbation.  The  people 
without  discussing  the  matter  approved  the  action  by 
acclamation.  No  one  knew  whether  he  had  the  right 
to  refuse  assent;  accustomed  to  obey,  the  Spartiate 
never  refused.  It  was,  therefore,  an  aristocracy  of 
governing  families.  Sparta  was  not  a  country  of 
equality.  There  were  some  men  who  were  called 
Equals,  but  only  because  they  were  equal  among  them- 
selves. The  others  were  termed  Inferiors  and  had  no 
part  in  the  government. 

The  Army. — Thanks  to  this  regime,  the  Spartiates 
preserved  the  rude  customs  of  mountaineers ;  they  had 
no  sculptors,  no  architects,  no  orators,  no  philosophers. 
They  had  sacrificed  everything  to  war;  they  became 
"adepts  in  the  military  art,"^  and  instructors  of  the 
other  Greeks.  They  introduced  two  innovations  espe-, 
cially:  a  better  method  of  combat,  a  better  method  of 
athletic  exercise. 

The  Hoplites.— Before  them  the  Greeks  marched 
into  battle  in  disorder;  the  chiefs,  on  horseback  or  in 
a  light  chair,  rushed  ahead,  the  men  following  on  foot, 
armed  each  in  his  own  fashion,  helter-skelter,  incapable 
of  acting  together  or  of  resisting.  A  battle  reduced 
itself  to  a  series  of  duels  and  to  a  massacre.  At 
Sparta  all  the  soldiers  had  the  same  arms;  for  de- 
^  A  phrase  of  Xenophon. 


SPARTA  135 

fence,  the  breastplate  covering  the  chest,  the  casque 
which  protected  the  head,  the  greaves  over  the  legs, 
the  buckler  held  before  the  body.  For  offence  the 
soldier  had  a  short  sword  and  a  long  lance.  The 
man  thus  armed  was  called  a  hoplite.  The  Spartan 
hoplites  were  drawn  up  in  regiments,  battalions,  com- 
panies, squads,  almost  like  our  armies.  An  officer 
commanded  each  of  these  groups  and  transmitted  to 
his  men  the  orders  of  his  superior  officer,  so  that  the 
general  in  chief  might  have  the  same  movement  exe- 
cuted throughout  the  whole  army.  This  organization 
which  appears  so  simple  to  us  was  to  the  Greeks  an 
astonishing  novelty. 

The  Phalanx. — Come  into  the  presence  of  the  enemy, 
the  soldiers  arrange  themselves  in  line,  ordinarily  eight 
ranks  deep,  each  man  close  to  his  neighbor,  forming 
a  compact  mass  which  we  call  a  Phalanx.  The  king, 
who  directs  the  army,  sacrifices  a  goat  to  the  gods ;  if 
the  entrails  of  the  victim  are  propitious,  he  raises  a 
chant  which  all  the  army  takes  up  in  unison.  Then 
they  advance.  With  rapid  and  measured  step,  to  the 
sound  of  the  flute,  with  lance  couched  and  buckler  be- 
fore the  body,  they  meet  the  enemy  in  dense  array, 
overwhelm  him  by  their  mass  and  momentum,  throw 
him  into  rout,  and  only  check  themselves  to  avoid 
breaking  the  phalanx.  So  long  as  they  remain  to- 
gether each  is  protected  by  his  neighbor  and  all  form 
an  impenetrable  mass  on  which  the  enemy  could  se- 
cure no  hold.  These  were  rude  tactics,  but  sufficient 
to  overcome  a  disorderly  troop.  Isolated  men  could 
not  resist  such  a  body.  The  other  Greeks  understood 
this,  and  all,  as  far  as  they  were  able,  imitated  the 


136  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Spartans ;  everywhere  men  were  armed  as  hoplites  and 
fought  in  phalanx. 

Gymnastics. — To  rush  in  orderly  array  on  the  enemy 
and  stand  the  shock  of  battle  there  was  need  of  agile 
and  robust  men ;  every  man  had  to  be  an  athlete.  The 
Spartans  therefore  organized  athletic  exercises,  and  in 
this  the  other  Greeks  imitated  them;  gymnastics  be- 
came for  all  a  national  art,  the  highest  esteemed  of  all 
the  arts,  the  crowning  feature  of  the  great  festivals. 

In  the  most  remote  countries,  in  the  midst  of  the 
barbarians  of  Gaul  or  of  the  Black  Sea,  a  Greek  city 
was  recognized  by  its  gymnasium.  There  was  a 
great  square  surrounded  by  porticoes  or  walks,  usu- 
ally near  a  spring,  with  baths  and  halls  for  exercise. 
The  citizens  came  hither  to  walk  and  chat:  it  was  a 
place  of  association.  All  the  young  men  entered  the 
gymnasium;  for  two  years  or  less  they  came  here 
every  day;  they  learned  to  leap,  to  run,  to  throw  the 
disc  and  the  javelin,  to  wrestle  by  seizing  about  the 
waist.  To  harden  the  muscles  and  strengthen  the  skin 
they  plunged  into  cold  water,  dispensed  with  oil  for 
the  body,  and  rubbed  the  flesh  with  a  scraper  (the 
strigil). 

Athletes. — Many  continued  these  exercises  all  their 
lives  as  a  point  of  honor  and  became  Athletes.  Some 
became  marvels  of  skill.  Milo  of  Croton  in  Italy,  it 
was  said,  would  carry  a  bull  on  his  shoulders;  he 
stopped  a  chariot  in  its  course  by  seizing  it  from  be- 
hind. These  athletes  served  sometimes  in  combats  as 
soldiers,  or  as  generals.  Gymnastics  were  the  school 
of  war. 

R81e  of  the  Spartiates. — The  Spartans  taught  the 


SPARTA  137 

other  Greeks  to  exercise  and  to  fight.  They  always 
remained  the  most  vigorous  wrestlers  and  the  best 
soldiers,  and  were  recognized  as  such  by  the  rest  of 
Greece.  Everywhere  they  were  respected.  When 
the  rest  of  the  Greeks  had  to  fight  together  against 
the  Persians,  they  unhesitatingly  took  the  Spartans  as 
chiefs — and  with  justice,  said  an  Athenian  orator. 


CHAPTER   XII 
ATHENS 

THE  ATHENIAN  PEOPLE 

Attica. — The  Athenians  boasted  of  having  always 
lived  in  the  same  country;  their  ancestors,  according 
to  their  story,  originated  from  the  soil  itself.  The 
mountaineers  who  conquered  the  south  land  passed  by 
the  country  without  invading  it;  Attica  was  hardly 
a  temptation  to  them. 

Attica  is  composed  of  a  mass  of  rocks  which  in  the 
form  of  a  triangle  advances  into  the  sea.  These  rocks, 
renowned  for  their  blocks  of  marble  and  for  the  honey 
of  their  bees,^  are  bare  and  sterile.  Between  them 
and  the  sea  are  left  three  small  plains  with  meagre 
soil,  meanly  watered  (the  streams  are  dry  in  summer), 
and  incapable  of  supporting  a  numerous  population. 

Athens. — In  the  largest  of  these,  plains,  a  league 
from  the  sea,  rises  a  massive  isolated  rock :  Athens  was 
built  at  its  foot.  The  old  city,  called  the  Acropolis, 
occupied  the  summit  of  the  rock. 

The  inhabitants  of  Attica  commenced,  not  by  form- 
ing a  single  state,  but  by  founding  scattered  villages, 
each  of  which  had  its  own  king  and  its  own  govern- 
ment.   Later  all  these  villages  united  under  one  king,^ 

1  The  marble  of  Pentelicus  and  the  honey  of  Hymettus. 
*  This  legendary  king  was  called  Theseus. 

138 


ATHENS  139 

the  king  of  Athens,  and  estabhshed  a  single  city. 
This  does  not  mean  that  all  the  people  came  to  dwell 
in  one  town.  They  continued  to  have  their  own  vil- 
lages and  to  cultivate  their  lands;  but  all  adored  one 
and  the  same  protecting  goddess,  Athena,  divinity  of 
Athens,  and  all  obeyed  the  same  king. 

Athenian  Revolutions. — Later  still  the  kings  were 
suppressed.  In  their  place  Athens  had  nine  chiefs 
(the  archons)  who  changed  every  year.  This  whole 
history  is  little  known  to  us  for  no  writing  of  the  time 
is  preserved.  They  used  to  say  that  for  centuries  the 
Athenians  had  lived  in  discord;  the  nobles  (Eupatrids) 
who  were  proprietors  of  the  soil  oppressed  the  peas- 
ants on  their  estates;  creditors  held  their  debtors  as 
slaves.  To  reestablish  order  the  Athenians  commis- 
sioned Solon,  a  sage,  to  draft  a  code  of  laws  for 
them   (594). 

Solon  made  three  reforms : 

1.  He  lessened  the  value  of  the  money,  which  al- 
lowed the  debtors  to  release  themselves  more  easily. 

2.  He  made  the  peasants  proprietors  of  the  land 
that  they  cultivated.  From  this  time  there  were  in 
Attica  more  small  proprietors  than  in  any  other  part 
of  Greece. 

3.  He  grouped  all  the  citizens  into  four  classes 
according  to  their  incomes.  Each  had  to  pay  taxes 
and  to  render  military  service  according  to  his  wealth, 
the  poor  being  exempt  from  taxation  and  military  ser- 
vice. 

After  Solon  the  Athenians  were  subject  to  Pisistra- 
tus,  one  of  their  powerful  and  clever  citizens ;  but  in 
510  the  dissensions  revived. 


140  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

• 
Reforms  of  Cleisthenes. — Cleisthenes,  leader  of  one 

of  the  parties,  used  the  occasion  to  make  a  thorough- 
going revolution. 

There  were  many  strangers  in  Athens,  especially 
seamen  and  traders  who  lived  in  Piraeus  near  the  har- 
bor. Cleisthenes  gave  them  the  rights  of  citizenship 
and  made  them  equal^  to  the  older  inhabitants.  From 
this  time  there  were  two  populations  side  by  side — the 
people  of  Attica  and  those  of  Piraeus.  A  difference 
of  physical  features  was  apparent  for  three  centuries 
afterward:  the  people  of  Attica  resembled  the  rest  of 
the  Greeks ;  those  in  Piraeus  resembled  Asiatics.  The 
Athenian  people  thus  augmented  was  a  new  people, 
the  most  active  in  Greece. 


THE  ATHENIAN  PEOPLE 

In  the  fifth  century  the  society  of  Athens  was  defi- 
nitely formed:  three  classes  inhabited  the  district  of 
Attica — slaves,  foreigners,  and  citizens. 

The  Slaves. — The  slaves  constituted  the  great  ma- 
jority of  the  population ;  there  was  no  man  so  poor 
that  he  did  not  have  at  least  one  slave ;  the  rich  owned 
a  multitude  of  them,  some  as  many  as  five  hundred. 
The  larger  part  of  the  slaves  lived  in  the  house  occu- 
pied with  grinding  grain,  kneading  bread,  spinning 
and  weaving  cloth,  performing  the  service  of  the 
kitchens,  and  in  attendance  on  their  masters.  Others 
labored  in  the  shops  as  blacksmiths,  as  dyers,  or  in 
stone  quarries  or  silver  mines.    Their  master  fed  them, 

*  Certain  limitations,  however,  are  referred  to  below,  under 
"Metics." — Ed. 


ATHENS  141 

but  sold  at  a  profit  everything  which  they  produced, 
giving  them  in  return  nothing  but  their  hving.  All 
the  domestic  servants,  all  the  miners,  and  the  greater 
part  of  the  artisans  were  slaves.  These  men  lived  in 
society  but  without  any  part  in  it;  they  had  not  even 
the  disposition  of  their  own  bodies,  being  wholly  the 
property  of  other  men.  They  were  thought  of  only  as 
objects  of  property;  they  were  often  referred  to  as 
"a  body'*  (awfia).  There  was  no  other  law  for  them 
than  the  will  of  their  master,  and  he  had  all  power 
over  them — to  make  them  work,  to  imprison  them,  to 
deprive  them  of  their  sustenance,  to  beat  them.  When 
a  citizen  went  to  law,  his  adversary  had  the  right  to 
require  that  the  former's  slaves  should  be  put  to  the 
torture  to  tell  what  they  knew.  Many  Athenian  ora- 
tors commend  this  usage  as  an  ingenious  means  for 
obtaining  true  testimony.  "Torture,"  says  the  ora- 
tor Isseus,  "is  the  surest  means  of  proof ;  and  so  when 
you  wish  to  clear  up  a  contested  question,  you  do  not 
address  yourselves  to  freemen,  but,  placing  the  slaves 
to  the  torture,  you  seek  to  discover  the  truth." 

Foreigners. — The  name  Metics  was  applied  to  peo- 
ple of  foreign  origin  who  were  established  in  Athens. 
To  become  a  citizen  of  Athens  it  was  not  enough,  as 
with  us,  to  be  born  in  the  country;  one  must  be  the 
son  of  a  citizen.  It  might  be  that  some  aliens  had 
resided  in  Attica  for  several  generations  and  yet  their 
family  not  become  Athenian.  The  metics  could  take 
no  part  in  the  government,  could  not  marry  a  citizen, 
nor  acquire  land.  But  they  were  personally  free,  they 
had  the  right  of  commerce  by  sea,  of  banking  and  of 
trade  on  condition  that  they  take  a  patron  to  represent 


142  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

them  in  the  courts.  There  were  in  Athens  more  than 
ten  thousand  famihes  of  metics,  the  majority  of  them 
bankers  or  merchants. 

The  Citizens — To  be  a  citizen  of  Athens  it  was  nec- 
essary that  both  parents  should  be  citizens.  The  young 
Athenian,  come  to  maturity  at  about  eighteen  years  of 
age,  appeared  before  the  popular  assembly,  received  the 
arms  which  he  was  to  bear  and  took  the  following 
oath:  "I  swear  never  to  dishonor  these  sacred  arms, 
not  to  quit  my  post,  to  obey  the  magistrates  and  the 
laws,  to  honor  the  religion  of  my  country."  He  be- 
came simultaneously  citizen  and  soldier.  Thereafter 
he  owed  military  service  until  he  was  sixty  years  of 
age.  With  this  he  had  the  right  to  sit  in  the  assembly 
and  to  fulfil  the  functions  of  the  state. 

Once  in  a  while  the  Athenians  consented  to  receive 
into  the  citizenship  a  man  who  was  not  the  son  of  a 
citizen,  but  this  was  rare  and  a  sign  of  great  favor. 
The  assembly  had  to  vote  the  stranger  into  its  mem- 
bership, and  then  nine  days  after  six  thousand  citizens 
had  to  vote  for  him  on  a  secret  ballot.  The  Athenian 
people  was  like  a  closed  \^ircle ;  no  new  members  were 
admitted  except  those  pleasing  to  the  old  members, 
and  they  admitted  few  beside  their  sons. 

THE    GOVERNMENT    OF    ATHENS 

The  Assembly — The  Athenians  called  their  govern- 
ment a  democracy  (a  government  by  the  people). 
But  this  people  was  not,  as  with  us,  the  mass  of  in- 
habitants, but  the  body  of  citizens,  a  true  aristocracy 
of   15,000  to  20,000  men  whg  governed  the  whole 


ATHENS  143 

nation  as  masters.  This  body  had  absolute  power, 
and  was  the  true  sovereign  of  Athens.  It  assembled 
at  least  three  times  a  month  to  deliberate  and  to  vote. 
The  assembly  was  held  in  the  open  air  on  the  Pnyx; 
the  citizens  sat  on  stone  benches  arranged  in  an  am- 
phitheatre; the  magistrates  before  them  on  a  platform 
opened  the  session  with  a  religious  ceremony  and  a 
prayer,  then  a  herald  proclaimed  in  a  loud  voice  the 
business  which  was  to  occupy  the  assembly,  and  said, 
"Who  wishes  to  speak?"  Every  citizen  had  the  right 
to  this  privilege;  the  orators  mounted  the  tribune  ac- 
cording to  age.  When  all  had  spoken,  the  president 
put  the  question;  the  assembly  voted  by  a  show  of 
hands,  and  then  dissolved. 

The  Courts — The  people  itself,  being  sovereign, 
passed  judgment  in  the  courts.  Every  citizen  of 
thirty  years  of  age  could  participate  in  the  judicial 
assembly  (the  Heliaea).  The  heliasts  sat  in  the  great 
halls  in  sections  of  five  hundred;  the  tribunal  was, 
then,  composed  of  one  thousand  to  fifteen  hundred 
judges.  The  Athenians  had  no  prosecuting  ofBcer 
as  we  have;  a  citizen  took  upon  himself  to  make  the 
accusation.  The  accused  and  the  accuser  appeared 
before  the  court ;  each  delivered  a  plea  which  was  not 
to  exceed  the  time  marked  off  by  a  water-clock.  Then 
the  judges  voted  by  depositing  a  black  or  white  stone. 
If  the  accuser  did  not  obtain  a  certain  number  of  votes, 
he  himself  was  condemned. 

The  Magistrates. — The  sovereign  people  needed  a 
council  to  prepare  the  business  for  discussion  and 
magistrates  to  execute  their  decisions.  The  council 
was  composed  of  five  hundred  citizens  drawn  by  lot 


144  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

for  one  year.  The  magistrates  were  very  numerous : 
ten  generals  to  command  the  army,  thirty  officials  for 
financial  administration,  sixty  police  officials  to  super- 
intend the  streets,  the  markets,  weights  and  measures, 
etc.i 

Character    of    This    Government The    power    in 

Athens  did  not  pertain  to  the  rich  and  the  noble,  as  in 
Sparta.  In  the  assembly  everything  was  decided  by 
a  majority  of  votes  and  all  the  votes  were  equal.  All 
the  jurors,  all  the  members  of  the  council,  all  the  mag- 
istrates except  the  generals  were  chosen  by  lot.  The 
citizens  were  equal  not  only  in  theory,  but  also  in 
practice.  Socrates  said^  to  a  well-informed  Athenian 
who  did  not  dare  to  speak  before  the  people:  "Of 
what  are  you  afraid?  Is  it  of  the  fullers,  the  shoe- 
makers, the  masons,  the  artisans,  or  the  merchants? 
for  the  assembly  is  composed  of  all  these  people." 

Many  of  these  people  had  to  ply  their  trade  in  order 
to  make  a  living,  and  could  not  serve  the  state  gratu- 
itously; and  so  a  salary  was  instituted:  every  citizen 
who  sat  in  the  assembly  or  in  the  courts  received  for 
every  day  of  session  three  obols  (about  eight  cents  of 
our  money),  a  sum  just  sufficient  to  maintain  life  at 
that  time.  From  this  day  the  poor  administered  the 
government. 

The  Demagogues. — Since  all  important  affairs 
whether  in  the  assembly  or  in  the  courts  were  decided 
by  discussion  and  discourse,  the  influential  men  were 
those  who  knew  how  to  speak  best.  The  people  ac- 
customed themselves  to  listen  to  the  orators,  to  follow 

*  Not  to  mention  the  Archons,  whom  they  had  not  ventured 
to  suppress, 

'Xenophon,  "Memorabilia,"  iii.,  7,  6. 


ATHENS  145 

their  counsels,  to  charge  them  with  embassies,  and 
even  to  appoint  them  generals.  These  men  were  called 
Demagogues  (leaders  of  the  people).  The  party  of 
the  rich  scoffed  at  them :  in  a  comedy  Aristophanes 
represents  the  people  (Demos)  under  the  form  of  an 
old  man  who  has  lost  his  wits:  ''You  are  foolishly 
credulous,  you  let  flatterers  and  intriguers  pull  you 
around  by  the  nose  and  you  are  enraptured  when  they 
harangue  you."  And  the  chorus,  addressing  a  char- 
latan, says  to  him,  "You  are  rude,  vicious;  you  have 
a  strong  voice,  an  impudent  eloquence,  and  violent 
gestures ;  believe  me,  you  have  all  that  is  necessary  to 
govern  Athens." 

PRIVATE    LIFE 

The  Athenians  created  so  many  political  functions 
that  a  part  of  the  citizens  was  engaged  in  fulfilling 
them.  The  citizen  of  Athens,  like  the  functionary  or 
soldier  of  our  days,  was  absorbed  in  public  affairs. 
Warring  and  governing  were  the  whole  of  his  life. 
He  spent  his  days  in  the  assembly,  in  the  courts,  in 
the  army,  at  the  gymnasium,  or  at  the  market.  Al- 
most always  he  had  a  wife  and  children,  for  his  relig- 
ion commanded  this,  but  he  did  not  live  at  home. 

The  Children. — When  a  child  came  into  the  world, 
the  father  had  the  right  to  reject  it.  In  this  case  it 
was  laid  outside  the  house  where  it  died  from  neglect, 
unless  a  passer-by  took  it  and  brought  it  up  as  a  slave. 
In  this  custom  Athens  followed  all  the  Greeks.  It 
was  especially  the  girls  that  were  exposed  to  death. 
"A  son,"  says  a  writer  of  comedy,  ''is  always  raised 


146  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

even  if  the  parents  are  in  the  last  stage  of  misery;  a 
daughter  is  exposed  even  though  the  parents  are  rich." 

If  the  father  accepted  the  child,  the  latter  entered 
the  family.  He  was  left  at  first  in  the  women's  apart- 
ments with  the  mother.  The  girls  remained  there 
until  the  day  of  their  marriage;  the  boys  came  out 
when  they  were  seven  years  old.  The  boy  was  then 
entrusted  to  a  preceptor  (pedagogue),  whose  business 
it  was  to  teach  him  to  conduct  himself  well  and  to 
obey.  The  pedagogue  was  often  a  slave,  but  the 
father  gave  him  the  right  to  beat  his  son.  This  was 
the  general  usage  in  antiquity. 

Later  the  boy  went  to  school,  where  he  learned  to 
read,  write,  cipher,  recite  poetry,  and  to  sing  in  the 
chorus  or  to  the  sound  of  the  flute.  At  last  came 
gymnastics.  This  was  the  whole  of  the  instruction ;  it 
made  men  sound  in  body  and  calm  in  spirit — what  the 
Greeks  called  "good  and  beautiful." 

To  the  young  girl,  secluded  with  her  mother,  noth- 
ing of  the  liberal  arts  was  taught ;  it  was  thought  suf- 
ficient if  she  learned  to  obey.  Xenophon  represents  a 
rich  and  well-educated  Athenian  speaking  thus  of  his 
wife  with  Socrates :  *'She  was  hardly  twenty  years  old 
when  I  married  her,  and  up  to  that  time  she  had  been 
subjected  to  an  exacting  surveillance;  they  had  no 
desire  that  she  should  live,  and  she  learned  almost 
nothing.  Was  it  not  enough  that  one  should  find  in 
her  a  woman  who  could  spin  the  flax  to  make  gar- 
ments, and  who  had  learned  how  to  distribute  duties 
to  the  slaves?"  When  her  husband  proposed  that  she 
become  his  assistant,  she  replied  with  great  surprise, 
"In  what  can  I  aid  you?     Of  what  am  I  capable? 


ATHENS  147 

My  mother  has  always  taught  me  that  my  business 
was  to  be  prudent."  Prudence  or  obedience  was  the 
virtue  which  was  required  of  the  Greek  woman. 

Marriage. — At  the  age  of  fifteen  the  girl  married. 
The  parents  had  chosen  the  husband;  it  might  be  a 
man  from  a  neighboring  family,  or  a  man  who  had 
been  a  long-time  friend  of  the  father,  but  always  a 
citizen  of  Athens.  It  was  rare  that  the  young  girl 
knew  him;  she  was  never  consulted  in  the  case.  He- 
rodotus, speaking  of  a  Greek,  adds :  "This  Callias  de- 
serves mention  for  his  conduct  toward  his  daughters ; 
for  when  they  were  of  marriageable  age  he  gave  them 
a  rich  dowry,  permitted  them  to  choose  husbands  from 
all  the  people,  and  he  then  married  them  to  the  men  of 
their  choice." 

Athenian  Women. — In  the  inner  recess  of  the  Athe- 
nian house  there  was  a  retired  apartment  reserved  for 
the  women — the  Gynecseum.  Husband  and  relatives 
were  the  only  visitors;  the  mistress  of  the  household 
remained  here  all  day  with  her  slaves;  she  directed 
them,  superintended  the  house-keeping,  and  distrib- 
uted to  them  the  flax  for  them  to  spin.  She  herself 
was  engaged  with  weaving  garments.  She  left  the 
house  seldom  save  for  the  religious  festivals.  She 
never  appeared  in  the  society  of  men :  "No  one  cer- 
tainly would  venture,"  says  the  orator  Isseus,  "to  dine 
with  a  married  woman ;  married  women  do  not  go  out 
to  dine  with  men  or  permit  themselves  to  eat  with 
strangers."  An  Athenian  w^oman  who  frequented 
society  could  not  maintain  a  good  reputation. 

The  wife,  thus  secluded  and  ignorant,  was  not  an 
agreeable   companion.     The  husband   had   taken  her 


148  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

not  for  his  life-long  companion,  but  to  keep  his  house 
in  order,  to  be  the  mother  of  his  children,  and  because 
Greek  custom  and  religion  required  that  he  should 
marry.  Plato  says  that  one  does  not  marry  because 
he  wants  to,  but  "because  the  law  constrains  him." 
And  the  comic  poet  Menander  had  found  this  saying : 
''Marriage,  to  tell  the  truth,  is  an  evil,  but  a  necessary 
evil."  And  so  the  women  in  Athens,  as  in  most  of 
the  other  states  of  Greece,  always  held  but  little  place 
in  society. 


CHAPTER   XIII 
WARS    OF    THE    GREEKS 

THE  PERSIAN  WARS 

Origin  of  the  Persian  Wars While  the  Greeks  were 

completing  the  organization  of  their  cities,  the  Per- 
sian king  was  uniting  all  the  nations  of  the  East  in  a 
single  empire.  Greeks  and  Orientals  at  length  found 
themselves  face  to  face.  It  is  in  Asia  Minor  that  they 
first  meet. 

On  the  coast  of  Asia  Minor  there  were  rich  and 
populous  colonies  of  the  Greeks;^  Cyrus,  the  king  of 
Persia,  desired  to  subject  them.  These  cities  sent  for 
help  to  the  Spartans,  who  were  reputed  the  bravest  of 
the  Greeks,  and  this  action  was  reported  to  Cyrus;  he 
replied,-  "I  have  never  feared  this  sort  of  people  that 
has  in  the  midst  of  the  city  a  place  where  the  people 
assemble  to  deceive  one  another  with  false  oaths." 
(He  was  thinking  of  the  market-place.)  The  Greeks 
of  Asia  were  subdued  and  made  subject  to  the  Great 
King. 

Thirty  years  later  King  Darius  found  himself  in  the 
presence  of  the  Greeks  of  Europe.  But  this  time  it 
was  the  Greeks  that  attacked  the  Great  King.  The 
Athenians  sent  twenty  galleys  to  aid  the  revolting 
lonians;  their  soldiers  entered  Lydia,  took  Sardis  by 

*  Twelve  Ionian  colonies,  twelve  ^olian,  four  Dorian. 

*  Herod.,  i.,  153. 

149 


150  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

surprise  and  burned  it.  Darius  revenged  himself  by 
destroying  the  Greek  cities  of  Asia,  but  he  did  not 
forget  the  Greeks  of  Europe.  He  had  decreed,  they 
say,  that  at  every  meal  an  officer  should  repeat  to  him  : 
"Master,  remember  the  Athenians."  He  sent  to  the 
Greek  cities  to  demand  earth  and  vv^ater,  a  symbol  in 
use  among  the  Persians  to  indicate  submission  to  the 
Great  King.  Most  of  the  Greeks  were  afraid  and 
yielded.  But  the  Spartans  cast  the  envoys  into  a  pit, 
bidding  them  take  thence  earth  and  water  to  carry  to 
the  king.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  Median 
wars. 

Comparison  of  the  Two  Adversaries. — The  contrast 
between  the  two  worlds  which  now  entered  into  con- 
flict is  well  marked  by  Herodotus^  in  the  form  of  a 
conversation  of  King  Xerxes  with  Demaratus,  a  Spar- 
tan exile :  "  'I  venture  to  assure  you,'  said  Demaratus, 
'that  the  Spartans  will  offer  you  battle  even  if  all  the 
rest  of  the  Greeks  fight  on  your  side,  and  if  their  army 
should  not  amount  to  more  than  one  thousand  men.' 
What !'  said  Xerxes,  *one  thousand  men  attack  so  im- 
mense an  army  as  mine !  I  fear  your  words  are  only 
boasting;  for  although  they  be  five  thousand,  we  are 
more  than  one  thousand  to  one.  If  they  had  a  master 
like  us,  fear  would  inspire  them  with  courage;  they 
would  march  under  the  lash  against  a  larger  army; 
but  being  free  and  independent,  they  will  have  no  more 
courage  than  that  with  which  nature  has  endowed 
them.'  The  Spartans,'  'replied  Demaratus,  *are  not  in- 
ferior to  anybody  in  a  hand-to-hand  contest,  and  united 
in  a  phalanx  they  are  the  bravest  of  all  men.  Yet, 
*  Herod.,  vii.,  103,  104. 


WARS    OF   THE   GREEKS      *  151 

though  free,  they  have  an  absolute  master,  the  Law, 
which  they  dread  more  than  aU  your  subjects  do  you; 
they  obey  it,  and  this  law  requires  them  to  stand  fast 
to  their  post  and  conquer  or  die.'  "  This  is  the  dif- 
ference between  the  two  parties  to  the  conflict :  on  the 
one  side,  a  multitude  of  subjects  united  by  force  under 
a  capricious  master ;  on  the  other,  little  martial  repub- 
lics whose  citizens  govern  themselves  according  to 
lavrs  which  they  respect. 

First  Persian  War. — There  were  two  Persian  wars. 
The  first  was  simply  an  expedition  against  Athens ;  six 
hundred  galleys  sent  by  Darius  disembarked  a  Persian 
army  on  the  little  plain  of  Alarathon,  seven  hours  dis- 
tant from  Athens. 

Religious  sentiment  prevented  the  Spartans  from 
taking  the  field  before  the  full  moon,  and  it  was  still 
only  the  first  quarter ;  the  Athenians  had  to  fight  alone. ^ 
Ten  thousand  citizens  armed  as  hoplites  camped  before 
the  Persians.  The  Athenians  had  ten  generals,  hav- 
ing the  command  on  successive  days ;  of  these  Mil- 
tiades,  when  his  turn  came,  drew  up  the  army  for  bat- 
tle. The  Athenians  charged  the  enemy  in  serried 
ranks,  but  the  Persians  seeing  them  advancing  with- 
out cavalry  and  without  archers,  thought  them  fools. 
It  was  the  first  time  that  the  Greeks  had  dared  to  face 
the  Persians  in  battle  array.  The  Athenians  began 
by  turning  both  flanks,  and  then  engaged  the  centre, 
driving  the  Persians  in  disorder  to  the  sea  and  forcing 
them  to  reembark  on  their  ships. 

The  victory  of  Marathon  delivered  the  Athenians 
and  made  them  famous  In  all  Greece  (490). 
*  1,000  Plataeans  came  to  the  assistance  of  the  Athenians. — Ed. 


152  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Second  Persian  War — The  second  war  began  ten 
years  later  with  an  invasion.  Xerxes  united  all  the 
peoples  of  the  empire,  so  that  the  land  force  amounted, 
as  some  say,  to  1,700,000  men.^  There  were  Medes 
and  Persians  clad  in  sleeved  tunics,  armed  with  cui- 
rasses of  iron,  bucklers,  bows  and  arrows;  Assyrians 
with  cuirass  of  linen,  armed  with  clubs  pointed  with 
iron;  Indians  clad  in  cotton  with  bows  and  arrows  of 
bamboo;  savages  of  Ethiopia  with  leopard  skins  for 
clothing;  nomads  armed  only  with  lassos;  Phrygians 
armed  with  short  pikes ;  Lydians  equipped  like  Greeks ; 
Thracians  carrying  javelins  and  daggers.  The  enu- 
meration of  these  fills  twenty  chapters  in  Herodotus.^ 
These  warriors  brought  with  them  a  crowd  equally 
numerous  of  non-combatants,  of  servants,  slaves, 
women,  together  with  a  mass  of  mules,  horses,  camels, 
and  baggage  wagons. 

This  horde  crossed  the  Hellespont  by  a  bridge  of 
boats  in  the  spring  of  2^80.  For  seven  days  and  nights 
it  defiled  under  the  lash.  Then  traversing  Thrace,  it 
marched  on  Greece,  conquering  the  peoples  whom  it 
met. 

The  Persian  fleet,  1,200  galleys  strong,  coasted 
the  shores  of  Thrace,  passing  through  the  canal  at 
Mount  Athos  which  Xerxes  had  had  built  for  this  very 
purpose. 

The  Greeks,  terrified,  submitted  for  the  most  part 
to  the  Great  King  and  joined  their  armies  to  the  Per- 
sian force.  The  Athenians  sent  to  consult  the  oracle 
of  Delphi,  but  received  only  the  reply:  ''Athens  will 

*  Herodotus's  statements  of  the  numbers  in  Xerxes'  army  are 
incredible. — Ed. 

2 Herod.,  vii.,  6i-8o. 


r 

WARS    OF   THE   GREEKS  153 

be  destroyed  from  base  to  summit."  The  god  being 
asked  to  give  a  more  favorable  response,  replied, 
"Zeus  accords  to  Pallas  [protectress  of  Athens]  a  wall 
of  wood  which  alone  shall  not  be  taken;  in  that 
shall  you  and  your  children  find  safety."  The  priests 
of  whom  they  asked  the  interpretation  of  this 
oracle  bade  the  Athenians  quit  Attica  and  go  to 
establish  themselves  elsewhere.  But  Themistocles 
explained  the  "wall  of  wood"  as  meaning  the  ships; 
they  should  retire  to  the  fleet  and  fight  the  Persians 
on  sea. 

Athens  and  Sparta,  having  decided  on  resistance, 
endeavored  to  form  a  league  of  the  Greeks  against  the 
Persians.  Few  cities  had  the  courage  to  enter  it,  and 
these  placed  themselves  under  the  command  of  the 
Spartans.  Four  battles  in  one  year  settled  the  war. 
At  Thermopylae,  Leonidas,  king  of  Sparta,  who  tried 
to  bar  the  entrance  to  a  defile  was  outflanked  and 
overwhelmed.  At  Salamis,  the  Persian  fleet,  crowded 
into  a  narrow  space  ^vhere  the  ships  embarrassed  one 
another,  was  defeated  by  the  Greek  navy  (480).  At 
Plataea  the  rest  of  the  Persian  army  left  in  Greece  was 
annihilated  by  the  Greek  hoplites ;  of  300,000  men  but 
40,000  escaped.  The  same  day  at  Mycale,  on  the 
coast  of  Asia,  an  army  of  the  Greeks  landed  and  routed 
the  Persians  (479).  The  Greeks  had  conquered  the 
Great  King. 

Reasons  for  the  Greek  Victory. — The  Median  war 
was  not  a  national  war  between  Greeks  and  barbarians. 
All  the  Greeks  of  Asia  and  half  the  Greeks  of  Europe 
fought  on  the  Persian  side.  Many  of  the  other  Greeks 
gave  no  assistance.     In  reality  it  was  a  fight  of  the 


154  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Great  King  and  his  subjects  against  Sparta,  Athens, 
and  their  allies. 

The  conquest  of  this  great  horde  by  two  small  peo- 
ples appeared  at  that  time  as  a  prodigy.  The  gods, 
said  the  Greeks,  had  fought  for  them.  But  there  is 
less  wonder  when  we  examine  the  two  antagonists 
more  closely :  the  Persian  army  was  innumerable,  and 
Xerxes  had  thought  that  victory  was  a  matter  of  num- 
bers. But  this  multitude  was  an  embarrassment  to 
itself.  It  did  not  know  where  to  secure  food  for  itself, 
it  advanced  but  slowly,  and  it  choked  itself  on  the  day 
of  combat.  Likewise  the  ships  arranged  in  too  close 
order  drove  their  prows  into  neighboring  ships  and 
shattered  their  oars.  Then  in  this  immense  crowd 
there  were,  according  to  Herodotus,  many  men  but 
few  soldiers.  Only  the  Persians  and  Medes,  the 
flower  of  the  army,  fought  with  energy;  the  rest  ad- 
vanced only  under  the  lash,  they  had  come  under  pres- 
sure to  a  war  which  had  no  interest  for  them,  ill-armed 
and  without  discipline,  ready  to  desert  as  soon  as  no 
one  was  watching  them.  At  Platsea  the  Medes  and 
Persians  were  the  only  ones  to  do  any  fighting;  the 
subjects  kept  aloof. 

The  Persian  soldiers  were  ill-equipped;  they  were 
embarrassed  by  their  long  robes,  the  head  was  poorly 
protected  by  a  felt  hat,  the  body  ill-defended  by  a 
shield  of  wicker-work.  For  arms  they  had  a  bow, 
a  dagger,  and  a  very  short  pike ;  they  could  fight  only 
at  a  great  distance  or  hand-to-hand.  The  Spartans 
and  their  allies,  on  the  contrary,  secure  in  the  protec- 
tion of  great  buckler,  helmet  and  greaves,  marched  in 
solid  line  and  were  irresistible;  they  broke  the  enemy 


WARS   OF   THE   GREEKS  155 

with  their  long  pikes  and  at  once  the  battle  became  a 
massacre. 

Results  of  the  Persian  Wars Sparta  had  com- 
manded the  troops,  but  as  Herodotus  says/  it  was 
Athens  who  had  delivered  Greece  by  setting  an  example 
of  resistance  and  constituting  the  fleet  of  Salamis.  It 
was  Athens  who  profited  by  the  victory.  All  the 
Ionian  cities  of  the  Archipelago  and  of  the  coast  of 
Asia  revolted  and  formed  a  league  against  the  Per- 
sians. The  Spartans,  men  of  the  mountains,  could  not 
conduct  a  maritime  w^ar,  and  so  withdrew;  the  Athe- 
nians immediately  became  chiefs  of  the  league.  In  476  ^ 
Aristides,  commanding  the  fleet,  assembled  the  dele- 
gates of  the  confederate  cities.  They  decided  to  con- 
tinue the  war  against  the  Great  King,  and  engaged  to 
provide  ships  and  warriors  and  to  pay  each  year  a 
contribution  of  460  talents  ($350,000).  The  treasure 
was  deposited  at  Delos  in  the  temple  of  Apollo,  god 
of  the  lonians.  Athens  was  charged  with  the  leader- 
ship of  the  military  force  and  wnth  collecting  the  tax. 
To  make  the  agreement  irrevocable  Aristides  had  a 
mass  of  hot  iron  cast  into  the  sea,  and  all  swore  to 
maintain  the  oaths  until  the  day  that  the  iron  should 
mount  to  the  surface. 

A  day  came,  however,  when  the  war  ceased,  and  the 
Greeks,  always  the  victors,  concluded  a  peace,  or  at 
least  a  truce,^  with  the  Great  King.  He  surrendered 
his  claim  on  the  Asiatic  Greeks  (about  449). 

»  vii.,  139. 

2  The  chronology  of  these  events  is  uncertain. — Ed. 

^  Called  the  Peace  of  Cimon,  but  it  is  very  doubtful  whether 
Cimon  really  concluded  a  treaty.  [With  more  right  may  it  be 
called  the  Peace  of  Callias,  who  was  probably  principal  ambassa- 
dor.—Ed.] 


156  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

What  was  to  become  of  the  treaty  of  Aristides? 
Were  the  confederate  cities  still  to  pay  their  contribu- 
tion now  that  there  was  no  more  fighting?  Some 
refused  it  even  before  the  war  was  done.  Athens  as- 
serted that  the  cities  had  made  their  engagements  in 
perpetuity  and  forced  them  to  pay  them. 

The  war  finished,  the  treasury  at  Delos  had  no  fur- 
ther use ;  the  Athenians  transferred  the  money  to 
Athens  and  used  it  in  building  their  monuments. 
They  maintained  that  the  allies  paid  for  deliverance 
from  the  Persians;  they,  therefore,  had  no  claim 
against  Athens  so  long  as  she  defended  them  from  the 
Great  King.  The  allies  had  now  become  the  tribu- 
taries of  Athens :  they  were  now  her  subjects.  Athens 
increased  the  tax  on  them,  and  required  their  citizens 
to  bring  their  cases  before  the  Athenian  courts;  she 
even  sent  colonists  to  seize  a  part  of  their  lands. 
Athens,  mistress  of  the  league,  was  sovereign  over 
more  than  three  hundred  cities  spread  over  the  islands 
and  the  coasts  of  the  Archipelago,  and  the  tribute  paid 
her  amounted  to  six  hundred  talents  a  year. 

STRIFE  AMONG  THE  GREEK  STATES 

The  Peloponnesian  War — After  the  foundation  of 
the  Athenian  empire  in  the  Archipelago  the  Greeks 
found  themselves  divided  between  two  leagues — the 
maritime  cities  were  subject  to  Athens;  the  cities  of 
the  interior  remained  under  the  domination  of  Sparta. 
After  much  preliminary  friction  war  arose  between 
Sparta  and  her  continental  allies  on  the  one  side  and 
Athens  and  her  maritime  subjects  on  the  other.    This 


WARS   OF   THE   GREEKS  157 

was  the  Pcloponncsian  War.  It  continued  twenty- 
seven  years  (431-404),  and  when  it  ceased,  it  w^as 
revived  under  other  names  down  to  360. 

These  wars  were  compHcated  affairs.  They  were 
fought  simultaneously  on  land  and  sea,  in  Greece,  Asia, 
Thrace,  and  Sicily,  ordinarily  at  several  points  at  once. 
The  Spartans  had  a  better  army  and  ravaged  Attica; 
the  Athenians  had  a  superior  fleet  and  made  descents 
on  the  coasts  of  the  Peloponnesus.  Then  Athens  sent 
its  army  to  Sicily  where  it  perished  to  the  last  man 
(413)  ;  Lysander,  a  Spartan  general,  secured  a  fleet 
from  the  Persians  and  destroyed  the  Athenian  fleet  in 
Asia  (405).  The  Athenian  allies  w-ho  fought  only 
under  Compulsion  abandoned  her.  Lysander  took 
Athens,  demolished  its  walls,  and  burnt  its  ships. 

Wars  against  Sparta. — Sparta  was  for  a  time  mis- 
tress on  both  land  and  sea.  'Tn  those  days,"  says 
Xenophon,  *'all  cities  obeyed  when  a  Spartan  issued 
his  orders."  But  soon  the  allies  of  Sparta,  wearied 
of  her  domination,  formed  a  league  against  her.  The 
Spartans,  driven  at  first  from  Asia,  still  maintained 
their  power  in  Greece  for  some  years  by  virtue  of  their 
alliance  wath  the  king  of  the  Persians  (387).  But 
the  Thebans,  having  developed  a  strong  army  under 
the  command  of  Epaminondas,  fought  them  at  Leuc- 
tra  (371)  and  at  ]\Iantinea  (362).  The  allies  of 
Sparta  detached  themselves  from  her,  but  the  Thebans 
could  not  secure  from  the  rest  of  the  Greeks  the  recog- 
nition of  their  supremacy.  From  this  time  no  Greek 
city  was  sovereign  over  the  others. 

Savage  Character  of  These  Wars These  wars  be- 
tween the  Greek  cities  were  ferocious.     A  few  inci- 


158  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

dents  suffice  to  show  their  character.  At  the  opening 
of  the  war  the  alhes  of  Sparta  threw  into  the  sea  all 
the  merchants  from  cities  hostile  to  them.  The  Athe- 
nians in  return  put  to  death  the  ambassadors  of  Sparta 
without  allowing  them  to  speak  a  word.  The  town  of 
Platsea  was  taken  by  capitulation,  and  the  Spartans 
had  promised  that  no  one  should  be  punished  without 
a  trial;  but  the  Spartan  judges  demanded  of  every 
prisoner  if  during  the  war  he  had  rendered  any  ser- 
vice to  the  Peloponnesians ;  when  the  prisoner  replied 
in  the  negative,  he  was  condemned  to  death.  The 
women  were  sold  as  slaves.  The  city  of  Mitylene  hav- 
ing revolted  from  Athens  was  retaken  by  her.  The 
Athenians  in  an  assembly  deliberated  and  decreed  that 
all  the  people  of  Mitylene  should  be  put  to  death.  It 
is  true  that  the  next  day  the  Athenians  revised  the 
decree  and  sent  a  second  ship  to  carry  a  more  favor- 
able commission,  but  still  more  than  one  thousand 
Mityleneans  were  executed. 

After  the  Syracusan  disaster  all  the  Athenian  army 
was  taken  captive.  The  conquerors  began  by  slaugh- 
tering all  the  generals  and  many  of  the  soldiers. 
The  remainder  were  consigned  to  the  quarries  which 
served  as  prison.  They  were  left  there  crowded  to- 
gether for  seventy  days,  exposed  without  protection 
to  the  burning  sun  of  summer,  and  then  to  the  chilly 
nights  of  autumn.  Many  died  from  sickness,  from 
cold  and  hunger — for  they  were  hardly  fed  at  all; 
their  corpses  remained  on  the  ground  and  infected  the 
air.  At  last  the  Syracusans  drew  out  the  survivors 
and  sold  them  into  slavery. 

Ordinarily  when  an  army  invaded  a  hostile  state 


WARS    OF   THE   GREEKS  159 

it  levelled  the  houses,  felled  the  trees,  burned  the  crops 
and  killed  the  laborers.  After  battle  it  made  short 
shrift  of  the  wounded  and  killed  prisoners  in  cold 
blood.  In  a  captured  city  everything  belonged  to  the 
captor :  men,  women,  children  were  sold  as  slaves. 
Such  was  at  this  time  the  right  of  war.  Thucydides 
sums  up  the  case  as  follows :  ^  "Business  is  regulated 
between  men  by  the  laws  of  justice  when  there  is 
obligation  on  both  sides ;  but  the  stronger  does  what- 
ever is  in  his  power,  and  the  weaker  yields.  The  gods 
rule  by  a  necessity  of  their  nature  because  they  are 
strongest;  men  do  likewise," 

Results  of  These  Wars — These  wars  did  not  result 
in  uniting  the  Greeks  into  one  body.  No  city,  Sparta 
more  than  Athens,  was  able  to  force  the  others  to 
obey  her.  They  only  exhausted  themselves  by  fight- 
ing one  another.  It  was  the  king  of  Persia  who  prof- 
ited by  the  strife.  Not  only  did  the  Greek  cities  not 
unite  against  him,  but  all  in  succession  allied  them- 
selves with  him  against  the  other  Greeks.  In  the 
notorious  Peace  of  Antalcidas  (387)  the  Great  King 
declared  that  all  the  Greek  cities  of  Asia  belonged  to 
him,  and  Sparta  recognized  this  claim.  Athens  and 
Thebes  did  as  much  some  years  later.  An  Athenian 
orator  said,  "It  is  the  king  of  Persia  who  governs 
Greece;  he  needs  only  to  establish  governors  in  our 
cities.  Is  it  not  he  who  directs  everything  among  us? 
Do  we  not  summon  the  Great  King  as  if  we  were  his 
slaves?"  The  Greeks  by  their  strife  had  lost  the  van- 
tage that  the  Median  war  had  gained  for  them. 

*  In  his  chapters  on  the  Mityleneans. 


CHAPTER   XIV 
THE  ARTS  IN  GREECE 

ATHENS  AT  THE  TIME  OF  PERICLES 

Pericles. — In  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  Athens 
found  herself  the  most  powerful  city  in  Greece.  Peri- 
cles, descended  from  one  of  the  noble  families,  was 
then  the  director  of  the  affairs  of  the  state.  He 
wasted  neither  speech  nor  personality,  and  never 
sought  to  flatter  the  vanity  of  the  people.  But  the 
Athenians  respected  him  and  acted  only  in  accord- 
ance with  his  counsels ;  they  had  faith  in  his  knowledge 
of  all  the  details  of  administration,  of  the  resources 
of  the  state,  and  so  they  permitted  him  to  govern. 
For  forty  years  Pericles  was  the  soul  of  the  politics  of 
Athens;  as  Thucydides  his  contemporary  said,  "The 
democracy  existed  in  name;  in  reality  it  was  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  first  citizen." 

Athens  and  Her  Monuments — In  Athens,  as  in  the 
majority  of  Greek  cities,  the  houses  of  individuals 
were  small,  low,  packed  closely  together,  forming 
narrow  streets,  tortuous  and  ill  paved.  The  Atheni- 
ans reserved  their  display  for  their  public  monuments. 
Ever  after  they  levied  heavy  war  taxes  on  their  allies 
they  had  large  sums  of  money  to  expend,  and  these 
were  employed  in  erecting  beautiful  edifices.     In  the 

1 60 


THE   ARTS    IN   GREECE  161 

market-place  they  built  a  portico  adorned  with  paint- 
ings (the  Poikile),  in  the  city  a  theatre,  a  temple  in 
honor  of  Theseus,  and  the  Odeon  for  the  contests  in 
music.  But  the  most  beautiful  monuments  rose  on 
the  rock  of  the  Acropolis  as  on  a  gigantic  pedestal. 
There  were  two  temples  of  which  the  principal,  the 
Parthenon,  was  dedicated  to  Athena,  protecting  god- 
dess of  the  city ;  a  colossal  statue  of  bronze  which  rep- 
resented Athena;  and  a  staircase  of  ornamental  char- 
acter leading  up  to  the  Propylsea.  Athens  was  from 
this  time  the  most  beautiful  of  the  Greek  cities.^ 

Importance  of  Athens — Athens  became  at  the  same 
time  the  city  of  artists.  Poets,  orators,  architects, 
painters,  sculptors — some  Athenians  by  birth,  others 
come  from  all  corners  of  the  Greek  world — met  here 
and  produced  their  masterpieces.  There  were  without 
doubt  many  Greek  artists  elsewhere  than  at  Athens; 
there  had  been  before  the  fifth  century,  and  there  were 
a  long  time  afterward;  but  never  were  so  many  as- 
sembled at  one  time  in  the  same  city.  Most  of  the 
Greeks  had  fine  sensibilities  in  matters  of  art ;  but  the 
Athenians  more  than  all  others  had  a  refined  taste,  a 
cultivated  spirit  and  love  of  the  beautiful.  If  the 
Greeks  have  gained  renown  in  the  history  of  civiliza- 
tion, it  is  that  they  have  been  a  people  of  artists; 
neither  their  little  states  nor  their  small  armies  have 
played  a  great  role  in  the  world.  This  is  why  the 
fifth  century  is  the  most  beautiful  moment  in  the  his- 
tory of  Greece;  this  is  why  Athens  has  remained  re- 
nowned above  all  the  rest  of  the  Greek  cities. 

^  The  moderns  have  called  this  time  the  Age  of  Pericles,  be- 
cause Pericles  was  then  governing  and  was  the  friend  of  many 
of  these  artists;   but  the  ancients  never  employed  the  phrase. 


162  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 


LETTERS 


The  Orators — Athens  is  above  all  the  city  of  elo- 
quence. Speeches  in  the  assembly  determine  war, 
peace,  taxes,  all  state  business  of  importance ;  speeches 
before  the  courts  condemn  or  acquit  citizens  and  sub- 
jects. Power  is  in  the  hands  of  the  orators ;  the  peo- 
ple follow  their  counsels  and  often  commit  to  them 
important  public  functions :  Cleon  is  appointed  gen- 
eral ;  Demosthenes  directs  the  war  against  Philip. 

The  orators  have  influence;  they  employ  their  tal- 
ents in  eloquence  to  accuse  their  political  enemies. 
Often  they  possess  riches,  for  they  are  paid  for  support- 
ing one  party  or  the  other  :  ^schines  is  retained  by  the 
king  of  Macedon ;  Demosthenes  accepts  fees  from  the 
king  of  Persia. 

Some  of  the  orators,  instead  of  delivering  their  own 
orations,  wrote  speeches  for  others.  When  an  Athe- 
nian citizen  had  a  case  at  court,  he  did  not  desire,  as 
we  do,  that  an  advocate  plead  his  case  for  him;  the 
law  required  that  each  speak  in  person.  He  therefore 
sought  an  orator  and  had  him  compose  a  speech  which 
he  learned  by  heart  and  recited  before  the  tribunal. 

Other  orators  travelled  through  the  cities  of  Greece 
speaking  on  subjects  which  pleased  their  fancy.  Some- 
times they  gave  lectures,  as  we  should  say. 

The  oldest  orators  spoke  simply,  limiting  themselves 
to  an  account  of  the  facts  without  oratorical  flourishes ; 
on  the  platform  they  were  almost  rigid  without  loud 
speaking  or  gesticulation.  Pericles  delivered  his  ora- 
tions with  a  calm  air,  so  quietly,  indeed,  that  no  fold 


THE   ARTS    IN   GREECE  163 

of  his  mantle  was  disturbed.  When  he  appeared  at 
the  tribune,  his  head,  according  to  custom,  crowned 
with  leaves,  he  might  have  been  taken,  said  the  people, 
''for  a  god  of  Olympus."  But  the  orators  who  fol- 
lowed wished  to  move  the  public.  They  assumed  an 
animated  style,  pacing  the  tribune  in  a  declamatory  and 
agitated  manner.  The  people  became  accustomed  to 
this  form  of  eloquence.  The  first  time  that  Demos- 
thenes came  to  the  tribune  the  assembly  shouted  with 
laughter;  the  orator  could  not  enunciate,  he  carried 
himself  ill.  He  disciplined  himself  in  declamation  and 
gesture  and  became  the  favorite  of  the  people.  Later 
when  he  was  asked  what  was  the  first  quality  of  the 
orator,  he  replied,  ''Action,  and  the  second,  action, 
and  the  third,  action."  Action,  that  is  delivery,  was 
more  to  the  Greeks  than  the  sense  of  the  discourse. 

The  Sages. — For  some  centuries  there  had  been,  espe- 
cially among  the  Greeks  of  Asia,  men  who  observed 
and  reflected  on  things.  They  were  called  by  a  name 
which  signifies  at  once  wise  men  and  scholars.  They 
busied  themselves  wnth  physics,  astronomy,  natural 
history,  for  as  yet  science  was  not  separated  from 
philosophy.  Such  were  in  the  seventh  century  the 
celebrated  Seven  Sages  of  Greece. 

The  Sophists. — About  the  time  of  Pericles  there 
came  to  Athens  men  who  professed  to  teach  wisdom. 
They  gathered  many  pupils  and  charged  fees  for  their 
lessons.  Ordinarily  they  attacked  the  religion,  cus- 
toms, and  institutions  of  Greek  cities,  showing  that 
they  were  not  founded  on  reason.  They  concluded 
that  men  could  not  know  anything  with  certainty 
(which  was  quite  true  for  their  time),  that  men  can 


164  .  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

know  nothing  at  all,  and  that  nothing  is  true  or  false : 
"Nothing  exists,"  said  one  of  them,  ''and  if  it  did 
exist,  we  could  not  know  it."  These  professors  of 
scepticism  were  called  sophists.  Some  of  them  were 
at  the  same  time  orators. 

Socrates  and   the   Philosophers Socrates,   an   old 

man  of  Athens,  undertook  to  combat  the  sophists. 
He  was  a  poor  man,  ugly,  and  without  eloquence. 
He  opened  no  school  like  the  sophists  but  contented 
himself  with  going  about  the  city,  conversing  with 
those  he  met,  and  leading  them  by  the  force  of  his 
questions  to  discover  what  he  himself  had  in  mind. 
He  sought  especially  the  young  men  and  gave  them 
instruction  and  counsel.  Socrates  made  no  preten- 
sions as  a  scholar :  "All  my  knowledge,"  said  he,  "is 
to  know  that  I  know  nothing."  He  would  call  him- 
self no  longer  a  sage,  like  the  others,  but  a  philosopher, 
that  is  to  say,  a  lover  of  wisdom.  He  did  not  meditate 
on  the  nature  of  the  world  nor  on  the  sciences;  man 
was  his  only  interest.  His  motto  w^as,  "Know  thy- 
self."    He  was  before  all  a  preacher  of  virtue. 

As  he  always  spoke  of  morals  and  religion,  the 
Athenians  took  him  for  a  sophist.^  In  399  he  was 
brought  before  the  court,  accused  "of  not  worshipping 
the  gods  of  the  city,  of  introducing  new  gods,  and  of 
corrupting  the  youth."  He  made  no  attempt  to  de- 
fend himself,  and  was  condemned  to  death.  He  was 
then  seventy  years  old. 

Xenophon,  one  of  his  disciples,  wrote  out  his  conver- 
sations and  an  apology  for  him.^     Another  disciple, 

i  ^  See  Aristophanes'  "Clouds." 

2  The  "Memorabilia"  and  "Apologia." 


THE   ARTS    IX   GREECE  165 

Plato,  composed  dialogues  in  which  Socrates  is  always 
the  principal  personage.  Since  this  time  Socrates  has 
been  regarded  as  the  "father  of  philosophy."  Plato 
himself  was  the  head  of  a  school  (429-348)  ;  Aristotle 
(384-322),  a  disciple  of  Plato,  summarized  in  his 
books  all  the  science  of  his  time.  The  philosophers 
that  followed  attached  themselves  to  one  or  the  other 
of  these  two  masters :  the  disciples  of  Plato  called 
themselves  Academicians,^  those  of  Aristotle,  Peri- 
patetics.- 

The  Chorus. — It  was  an  ancient  custom  of  the  Greeks 
to  dance  in  their  religious  ceremonies.  Around  the 
altar  dedicated  to  the  god  a  group  of  young  men 
passed  and  repassed,  assuming  noble  and  expressive 
attitudes,  for  the  ancients  danced  with  the  whole  body. 
Their  dance,  very  different  from  ours,  was  a  sort  of 
animated  procession,  something  like  a  solemn  panto- 
mime. Almost  ahvays  this  religious  dance  w^as  accom- 
panied by  chants  in  honor  of  the  god.  The  group 
singing  and  dancing  at  the  same  time  was  called  the 
Chorus.  All  the  cities  had  their  festival  choruses  in 
which  the  children  of  the  noblest  families  participated 
after  long  time  of  preparation.  The  god  required  the 
service  of  a  troop  worthy  of  him. 

Tragedy  and  Comedy — In  the  level  country  about 
Athens  the  young  men  celebrated  in  this  manner  each 
year  religious  dances  in  honor  of  Dionysos,  the  god  of 
the  vintage.  One  of  these  dances  was  grave;  it  rep- 
resented the  actions  of  the  god.     The  leader  of  the 

*  Because  Plato  had  lectured  in  the  gardens  of  a  certain 
Academus. 

^  Because  Aristotle  had  given  instruction  while  moving  about. 
[Or  rather  from  a  favorite  walk  (Peripatus)  in  the  Lyceum. — Ed.] 


166  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

chorus  played  Dionysos,  the  chorus  itself  the  satyrs, 
his  companions.  Little  by  little  they  came  to  repre- 
sent also  the  life  of  the  other  gods  and  the  ancient 
heroes.  Then  some  one  (the  Greeks  call  him  Thes- 
pis)  conceived  the  idea  of  setting  up  a  stage  on  which 
the  actor  could  play  while  the  chorus  rested.  The 
spectacle  thus  perfected  was  transferred  to  the  city 
near  the  black  poplar  tree  in  the  market.  Thus  orig- 
inated Tragedy. 

The  other  dance  was  comic.  The  masked  dancers 
chanted  the  praises  of  Dionysos  mingled  with  jeers 
addressed  to  the  spectators  or  with  humorous  reflec- 
tions on  the  events  of  the  day.  The  same  was  done 
for  the  comic  chorus  as  for  the  tragic  chorus :  actors 
were  introduced,  a  dialogue,  all  of  a  piece,  and  the 
spectacle  w-as  transferred  to  Athens.  This  was  the 
origin  of  Comedy.  This  is  the  reason  that  from  this 
time  tragedy  has  been  engaged  with  heroes,  and  com- 
edy with  every-day  life. 

Tragedy  and  comedy  preserved  some  traces  of  their 
origin.  Even  when  they  were  represented  in  the 
theatre,  they  continued  to  be  played  before  the  altar 
of  the  god.  Even  after  the  actors  mounted  on  the 
platform  had  become  the  most  important  personages 
of  the  spectacle,  the  choir  continued  to  dance  and  to 
chant  around  the  altar.  In  the  comedies,  like  the 
masques  in  other  days,  sarcastic  remarks  on  the  gov- 
ernment came  to  be  made;  this  was  the  Parabasis. 

The  Theatre. — That  all  the  Athenians  might  be 
present  at  these  spectacles  there  was  built  on  the  side  of 
the  Acropolis  the  theatre  of  Dionysos  which  could  hold 
30,000  spectators.     Like  all  the  Greek  theatres,  it  was 


THE   ARTS    IN   GREECE  167 

open  to  heaven  and  was  composed  of  tiers  of  rock 
ranged  in  a  half -circle  about  the  orchestra  where  the 
chorus  performed  and  before  the  stage  where  the  play 
was  given. 

Plays  were  produced  only  at  the  time  of  the  festivals 
of  the  god,  but  then  they  continued  for  several  days  in 
succession.  They  began  in  the  morning  at  sunrise 
and  occupied  all  the  time  till  torch-light  with  the  pro- 
duction of  a  series  of  three  tragedies  (a  trilogy)  fol- 
lowed by  a  satirical  drama.  Each  trilogy  was  the 
work  of  one  author.  Other  trilogies  were  presented 
on  succeeding  days,  so  that  the  spectacle  w^as  a  compe- 
tition between  poets,  the  public  determining  the  victor. 
The  most  celebrated  of  these  competitors  were  ^schy- 
lus,  Sophocles,  and  Euripides.  There  were  also  con- 
tests in  comedy,  but  there  remain  to  us  only  the  works 
of  one  comic  poet,  Aristophanes. 

THE    ARTS 

Greek  Temples. — In  Greece  the  most  beautiful  edi- 
fices were  constructed  to  the  honor  of  the  gods,  and 
when  we  speak  of  Greek  architecture  it  is  their  tem- 
ples that  we  have  in  mind. 

A  Greek  temple  is  not,  like  a  Christian  church,  de- 
signed to  receive  the  faithful  who  come  thither  to  pray. 
It  is  the  palace^  where  the  god  lives,  represented  by 
his  idol,  a  palace  which  men  feel  under  compulsion  to 
make  splendid.  The  mass  of  the  faithful  do  not 
enter  the  interior  of  the  temple;  they  remain  without, 
surrounding  the  altar  in  the  open  air. 

*  The  Greek  word  for  temple  signifies  "dwelling.-* 


168  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

At  the  centre  of  the  temple  is  the  ''chamber"  of  the 
god,  a  mysterious  sanctuary  without  windows,  dimly 
lighted  from  above. ^  On  the  pavement  rises  the  idol 
of  wood,  of  marble,  or  of  ivory,  clad  in  gold  and 
adorned  with  garments  and  jewels.  The  statue  is 
often  of  colossal  size ;  in  the  temple  of  Olympia  Zeus 
is  represented  sitting  and  his  head  almost  touches  the 
summit  of  the  temple.  "If  the  god  should  rise,"  they 
said,  "his  head  would  shatter  the  roof."  This  sanc- 
tuary, a  sort  of  reliquary  for  the  idol,  is  concealed 
on  every  side  from  the  eyes.  To  enter,  it  is  necessary 
to  pass  through  a  porch  formed  by  a  row  of  columns. 

Behind  the  "chamber"  is  the  "rear-chamber"  in 
which  are  kept  the  valuable  property  of  the  god — his 
riches,^  and  often  the  gold  and  silver  of  the  city.  The 
temple  is  therefore  storehouse,  treasury,  and  museum. 

Rows  of  columns  surround  the  building  on  four 
sides,  like  a  second  wall  protecting  the  god  and  his 
treasures.  There  are  three  orders  of  columns  which 
differ  in  base  and  capital,  each  bearing  the  name  of 
the  people  that  invented  it  or  most  frequently  used  it. 
They  are,  in  the  order  of  age,  the  Doric,  the  Ionic, 
and  the  Corinthian.  The  temple  is  named  from  the 
style  of  the  columns  supporting  it. 

Above  the  columns,  around  the  edifice  are  sculp- 
tured surfaces  of  marble  (the  metopes)  which  alter- 
nate with  plain  blocks  of  marble  (the  triglyphs). 
Metopes  and  triglyphs  constitute  the  frieze. 

^  But  not  by  a  square  opening  in  the  roof  as  formerly  supposed. 
— Ed.     See  Gardner,  "Ancient  Athens,"  N.  Y.,  1902,  p.  268. 

"^  The  Parthenon  contained  vases  of  gold  and  silver,  a  crown 
of  gold,  shields,  helmets,  swords,  serpents  of  gold,  an  ivory 
table,  eighteen  couches,  and  quivers  of  ivory. 


THE   ARTS    IN   GREECE  169 

The  temple  is  surmounted  with  a  triangular  pedi- 
ment adorned  with  statues. 

Greek  temples  were  polychrome,  that  is  to  say,  were 
painted  in  several  colors,  yellow,  blue,  and  red.  For  a 
long  time  the  moderns  refused  to  believe  this;  it  was 
thought  that  the  Greeks  possessed  too  sober  taste  to 
add  color  to  an  edifice.  But  traces  of  painting  have 
been  discovered  on  several  temples,  which  cannot 
leave  the  matter  in  doubt.  It  has  at  last  been  con- 
cluded, on  reflection,  that  these  bright  colors  were  to 
give  a  clearer  setting  to  the  lines. 

Characteristics  of  Greek  Architecture — A  Greek 
temple  appears  at  first  a  simple,  bare  edifice ;  it  is  only 
a  long  box  of  stone  set  upon  a  rock;  the  fagade  is  a 
square  surmounted  by  a  triangle.  At  first  glance  one 
sees  only  straight  lines  and  cylinders.  But  on  nearer 
inspection  ''it  is  discovered^  that  not  a  single  one  of 
these  lines  is  truly  straight."  The  columns  swell  at 
the  middle,  vertical  lines  are  slightly  inclined  to  the 
centre,  and  horizontal  lines  bulge  a  little  at  the  middle. 
And  all  this  is  so  fine  that  exact  measurements  are  nec- 
essary to  detect  the  artifice.  Greek  architects  discov- 
ered that,  to  produce  a  harmonious  whole,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  avoid  geometrical  lines  w^hich  w^ould  appear 
stiff,  and  take  account  of  illusions  in  perspective. 
"The  aim  of  the  architect,"  says  a  Greek  writer,  "is 
to  invent  processes  for  deluding  the  sight." 

Greek  artists  wrought  conscientiously  for  they 
worked  for  the  gods.  And  so  their  monuments  are 
elaborated  in  all  their  parts,  even  in  those  that  are 
least  in  view,  and  are  constructed  so  solidly  that  they 

*  Boutmy,  "Philosophie  de  1' Architecture  en  Grece.'- 


170  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

exist  to  this  day  if  they  have  not  been  violently 
destroyed.  The  Parthenon  was  still  intact  in  the 
seventeenth  century.  An  explosion  of  gunpowder 
wrecked  it. 

The  architecture  of  the  Greeks  was  at  once  solid  and 
elegant,  simple  and  scientific.  Their  temples  have  al- 
most all  disappeared ;  here  and  there  are  a  very  few,^ 
wholly  useless,  in  ruins,  with  roofs  fallen  in,  often 
nothing  left  but  rows  of  columns.  And  yet,  even  in 
this  state,  they  enrapture  those  who  behold  them. 

Sculpture. — Among  the  Egyptians  and  the  Assyri- 
ans sculpture  was  hardly  more  than  an  accessory  orna- 
ment of  their  edifices ;  the  Greeks  made  it  the  principal 
art.  Their  most  renowned  artists,  Phidias,  Praxite- 
les, and  Lysippus,  were  sculptors. 

They  executed  bas-reliefs  to  adorn  the  walls  of  a 
temple,  its  fagade  or  its  pediment.  Of  this  style  of 
work, is  the  famous  frieze  of  the  Panathenaic  pro- 
cession which  was  carved  around  the  Parthenon,  rep- 
resenting young  Athenian  women  on  the  day  of  the 
great  festival  of  the  goddess.^ 

They  sculptured  statues  for  the  most  part,  of  which 
some  represented  gods  and  served  as  idols;  others 
represented  athletes  victorious  in  the  great  games,  and 
these  were  the  recompense  of  his  victory. 

The  most  ancient  statues  of  the  Greeks  are  stiff 
and  rude,  quite  similar  to  the  Assyrian  sculptures. 
They  are  often  colored.  Little  by  little  they  become 
graceful  and  elegant.  The  greatest  works  are  those 
of  Phidias  in  the  fifth  century  and  of  Praxiteles  in  the 

^  The  most  noted  are  the  Parthenon  at  Athens  and  the  temple 
of  Poseidon  at  Passtum,  in  south  Italy. 

2  Knights  and  other  subjects  were  also  shown. — Ed. 


THE   ARTS    IN   GREECE  171 

fourth.  The  statues  of  the  following  centuries  are 
more  graceful,  but  less  noble  and  less  powerful. 

There  were  thousands  of  statues  in  Greece/  for 
every  city  had  its  own,  and  the  sculptors  produced 
without  cessation  for  five  centuries.  Of  all  this  multi- 
tude there  remain  to  us  hardly  fifteen  complete  statues. 
Not  a  single  example  of  the  masterpieces  celebrated 
among  the  Greeks  has  come  down  to  us.  Our  most 
famous  Greek  statues  are  either  copies,  like  the  Venus 
of  Milo,  or  works  of  the  period  of  the  decadence,  like 
the  Apollo  of  the  Belvidere.-  Still  there  remains 
enough,  uniting  the  fragments  of  statues  and  of  bas- 
reliefs  which  are  continually  being  discovered,^  to  give 
us  a  general  conception  of  Greek  sculpture. 

Greek  sculptors  sought  above  everything  else  to  rep- 
resent the  most  beautiful  bodies  in  a  calm  and  noble 
attitude.  They  had  a  thousand  occasions  for  viewing 
beautiful  bodies  of  men  in  beautiful  poses,  at  the  gym- 
nasium, in  the  army,  in  the  sacred  dances  and  choruses. 
They  studied  them  and  learned  to  reproduce  them ;  no 
one  has  ever  better  executed  the  human  body. 

Usually  in  a  Greek  statue  the  head  is  small,  the  face 
without  emotion  and  dull.  The  Greeks  did  not  seek, 
as  we  do,  the  expression  of  the  face;  they  strove  for 
beauty  of  line  and  did  not  sacrifice  the  limbs  for  the 
head.  In  a  Greek  statue  it  is  the  whole  body  that  is 
beautiful. 

*  Even  in  the  second  century  after  the  Romans  had  pillaged 
Greece  to  adorn  their  palaces,  there  were  many  thousands  of 
statues  in  the  Greek  cities. 

2  It  is  not  certain  that  the  Apollo  Belvidere  was  not  a  Roman 
copy. 

3  In  the  ruins  of  Olympia  has  been  found  a  statue  of  Hermes, 
the  work  of  Praxiteles. 


172  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Pottery. — The  Greeks  came  to  make  pottery  a  real 
art.  They  called  it  Ceramics  (the  potter's  art),  and 
this  name  is  still  preserved.  Pottery  had  not  the 
same  esteem  in  Greece  as  the  other  arts,  but  for  us  it 
has  the  great  advantage  of  being  better  known  than 
the  others.  While  temples  and  statues  fell  into  ruin, 
the  achievements  of  Greek  potters  are  preserved  in  the 
tombs.  This  is  where  they  are  found  today.  Al- 
ready more  than  20,000  specimens  have  been  collected 
in  all  the  museums  of  Europe.     They  are  of  two  sorts : 

1.  Painted  vases,  with  black  or  red  figures,  of  all 
sizes  and  every  form ; 

2.  Statuettes  of  baked  earth ;  hardly  known  twxnty 
years  ago,  they  have  now  attained  almost  to  celebrity 
since  the  discovery  of  the  charming  figurines  of 
Tanagra  in  Boeotia.  The  most  of  them  are  little  idols, 
but  some  represent  children  or  women. 

Painting. — There  were  illustrious  painters  in 
Greece — Zeuxis,  Parrhasius,  and  Apelles.  We  know 
little  of  them  beyond  some  anecdotes,  often  doubtful, 
and  some  descriptions  of  pictures.  To  obtain  an  im- 
pression of  Greek  painting  we  are  limited  to  the 
frescoes  found  in  the  houses  of  Pompeii,  an  Italian 
city  of  the  first  century  of  our  era.  This  amounts  to 
the  same  as  saying  we  know  nothing  of  it. 


CHAPTER    XV 
THE    GREEKS    IN    THE    ORIENT 

ASIA  BEFORE  ALEXANDER 

Decadence  of  the  Persian  Empire The  Greeks,  en- 
gaged in  strife,  ceased  to  attack  the  Great  King;  they 
even  received  their  orders  from  him.  But  the  Per- 
sian empire  still  continued  to  become  enfeebled.  The 
satraps  no  longer  obeyed  the  government ;  each  had 
his  court,  his  treasure,  his  army,  made  war  according 
to  his  fancy,  and  in  short,  became  a  little  king  in  his 
province.  When  the  Great  King  desired  to  remove 
a  satrap,  he  had  scarcely  any  way  of  doing  it  except 
by  assassinating  him.  The  Persians  themselves  were 
no  longer  that  nation  before  which  all  the  Asiatic  peo- 
ples were  wont  to  tremble.  Xenophon,  a  Greek  cap- 
tain, who  had  been  in  their  pay,  describes  them  as 
follows :  "They  recline  on  tapestries  wearing  gloves 
and  furs.  The  nobles,  for  the  sake  of  the  pay,  trans- 
form their  porters,  their  bakers,  and  cooks  into  knights 
— even  the  valets  who  served  them  at  table,  dressed 
them  or  perfumed  them.  And  so,  although  their 
armies  were  large,  they  were  of  no  service,  as  is 
apparent  from  the  fact  that  their  enemies  traversed 
the  empire  more  freely  than  their  friends.  They  no 
longer  dared  to  fight.  The  infantry  as  formerly  was 
equipped  with  buckler,  sword,  and  axe,  but  they  had  no 

173 


174  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

courage  to  use  them.  *rhe  drivers  of  chariots  before 
facing  the  enemy  basely  allowed  themselves  to  be 
overthrown  at  once  or  leaped  down  from  the  cars,  so 
that  these  being  no  longer  under  control  injured  the 
Persians  more  than  the  enemy.  For  the  rest,  the 
Persians  do  not  disguise  their  military  weakness,  they 
concede  their  inferiority  and  do  not  dare  to  take  the 
field  except  there  are  Greeks  in  their  army.  They 
have  for  their  maxim  'never  to  fight  Greeks  without 
Greek  auxiliaries pn  their  side.'  " 

Expedition  of  the  "Ten  Thousand This  weakness 

was  very  apparent  whe;n  in  400  Cyrus,  brother  of  the 
Great  King  Artaxerxes,  marched  against  him  to  secure 
his  throne.  There  were  then  some  thousands  of  ad- 
venturers or  Greek  exiles  who  hired  themselves  as 
mercenaries.  Cyrus  retained  ten  thousand  of  them. 
Xenophon,  one  of  their  number,  has  written  the  story 
of  their  expedition. 

This  army  crossed  the  whole  of  Asia  even  to  the 
Euphrates  without  resistance  from  any  one.^  They 
at  last  came  to  battle  near  Babylon.  The  Greeks  ac- 
cording to  their  habit  broke  into  a  run,  raising  the 
war-cry.  The  barbarians  took  flight  before  the 
Greeks  had  come  even  within  bow-shot.  The  Greeks 
followed  in  pursuit  urging  one  another  to  keep  ranks. 

^  An  episode  told  by  Xenophon  shows  what  fear  the  Greeks 
inspired.  One  day,  to  make  a  display  before  the  queen  of 
Cilicia,  Cyrus  had  his  Greeks  drawn  up  in  battle  array.  "They 
all  had  their  brazen  helmets,  their  tunics  of  purple,  their  gleam- 
ing shields  and  greaves.  The  trumpet  sounded,  and  the  soldiers, 
with  arms  in  action,  began  the  charge;  hastening  their  steps  and 
raising  the  war-cry,  they  broke  into  a  run.  The  barbarians  were 
terrified;  the  Cilician  queen  fled  from  her  chariot,  the  merchants 
of  the  market  abandoning  their  goods  took  to  flight,  and  the 
Greeks  returned  with  laughter  to  their  tents.'- 


THE   GREEKS    IN   THE   ORIENT  175 

When  the  war-chariots  attacked  them,  they  opened 
their  ranks  and  let  them  through.  Not  a  Greek  re- 
ceived the  least  stroke  with  the  exception  of  one  only 
who  was  wounded  with  an  arrow.  Cyrus  was  killed ; 
his  army  disbanded  without  fighting,  and  the  Greeks 
remained  alone  in  the  heart  of  a  hostile  country 
threatened  by  a  large  army.  And  yet  the  Persians 
did  not  dare  to  attack  them,  but  treacherously  killed 
their  five  generals,  twenty  captains,  and  two  hundred 
soldiers  who  had  come  to  conclude  a  truce. 

The  friendless  mercenaries  elected  new  chiefs, 
burned  their  tents  and  their  chariots,  and  began  their 
retreat.  They  broke  into  the  rugged  mountains  of 
Armenia,  and  notwithstanding  famine,  snow,  and  the 
arrows  of  the  natives  who  did  not  wish  to  let  them 
pass,  they  came  to  the  Black  Sea  and  returned  to 
Greece  after  traversing  the  whole  Persian  empire.  At 
their  return  (399)  their  number  amounted  still  to 
8,000. 

Agesilaus. — Three  years  after,  Agesilaus,  king  of 
Sparta,  with  a  small  army  invaded  the  rich  country 
of  Asia  Minor,  Lydia,  and  Phrygia.  He  fought  the 
satraps  and  was  about  to  invade  Asia  when  the  Spar- 
tans ordered  his  return  to  fight  the  armies  of  Thebes 
and  Athens.  Agesilaus  was  the  first  of  the  Greeks  to 
dream  of  conquering  Persia.  He  was  distressed  to 
see  the  Greeks  fighting  among  themselves.  When 
they  announced  to  him  the  victory  at  Corinth  where 
but  eight  Spartans  had  perished  and  10,000  of  the 
enemy,  instead  of  rejoicing  he  sighed  and  said,  "Alas, 
unhappy  Greece,  to  have  lost  enough  men  to  have 
subjugated  all  the  barbarians!"     He  refused  one  day 


176  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

to  destroy  a  Greek  city.  "If  we  exterminate  all  the 
Greeks  who  fail  of  their  duty,"  said  he,  "where  shall 
we  find  the  men  to  vanquish  the  barbarians?"  This 
feeling  was  rare  at  that  time.  In  relating  these  words 
of  Agesilaus  Xenophon,  his  biographer,  exclaims, 
"Who  else  regarded  it  as  a  misfortune  to  conquer 
when  he  was  making  war  on  peoples  of  his  own  race?" 


CONQUEST  OF  ASIA  BY  ALEXANDER 

Macedon. — Sparta  and  Athens,  exhausted  by  a  cen- 
tury of  wars,  had  abandoned  the  contest  against  the 
king  of  Persia.  A  new  people  resumed  it  and  brought 
it  to  an  end ;  these  were  the  Macedonians.  They  were 
a  very  rude  people,  crude,  similar  to  the  ancient  Do- 
rians, a  people  of  shepherds  and  soldiers.  They  lived 
far  to  the  north  of  Greece  in  two  great  valleys  that 
opened  to  the  sea.  The  Greeks  had  little  regard  for 
them,  rating  them  as  half  barbarians;  but  since  the 
kings  of  Macedon  called  themselves  sons  of  Herakles 
they  had  been  permitted  to  run  their  horses  in  the 
races  of  the  Olympian  games.  This  gave  them  stand- 
ing as  Greeks. 

Philip  of  Macedon — These  kings  ruling  in  the  in- 
terior, remote  from  the  sea,  had  had  but  little  part  in 
the  wars  of  the  Greeks.  But  in  359  B.C.  Philip 
ascended  the  throne  of  Macedon,  a  man  young,  active, 
bold,  and  ambitious.     Philip  had  three  aims: 

1.  To  develop  a  strong  army ; 

2.  To  conquer  all  the  ports  on  the  coast  of  Mace- 
don; 


THE  GREEKS   IN   THE   ORIENT  177 

3.  To  force  all  the  other  Greeks  to  unite  under  his 
command  against  the  Persians. 

He  consumed  twenty-four  years  in  fulfilling  these 
purposes  and  succeeded  in  all.  The  Greeks  let  him 
alone,  often  even  aided  him;  in  every  city  he  bribed 
partisans  who  spoke  in  his  favor.  '*No  fortress  is 
impregnable,"  said  he,  *'if  only  one  can  introduce 
within  it  a  mule  laden  with  gold."  And  by  these 
means  he  took  one  after  another  all  the  cities  of  north- 
ern Greece. 

Demosthenes. — The  most  illustrious  opponent  of 
Philip  was  the  orator  Demosthenes.  The  son  of  an 
armorer,  he  was  left  an  orphan  at  the  age  of  seven, 
and  his  guardians  had  embezzled  a  part  of  his  fortune. 
As  soon  as  he  gained  his  majority  he  entered  a  case 
against  them  and  compelled  them  to  restore  the  prop- 
erty. He  studied  the  orations  of  Isseus  and  the  his- 
tory of  Thucydides  which  he  knew  by  heart.  But 
when  he  spoke  at  the  public  tribune  he  was  received 
with  shouts  of  laughter;  his  voice  was  too  feeble  and 
his  breath  too  short.  For  several  years  he  labored  to 
discipline  his  voice.  It  is  said  that  he  shut  himself  up 
for  months  with  head  half  shaved  that  he  might  not 
be  tempted  to  go  out,  that  he  declaimed  with  pebbles  in 
his  mouth,  and  on  the  sea-shore,  in  order  that  his 
voice  might  rise  above  the  uproar  of  the  crowd. 
When  he  reappeared  on  the  tribune,  he  was  master  of 
his  voice,  and,  as  he  preserved  the  habit  of  carefully 
preparing  all  his  orations,  he  became  the  most  finished 
and  most  potent  orator  of  Greece. 

The  party  that  then  governed  Athens,  whose  chief 
was  Phocion,  wished  to  maintain  the  peace :  Athens  had 
neither  soldiers  nor  money  enough  to  withstand  the 


178  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

king  of  Macedon.  ''I  should  counsel  you  to  make 
war,"  said  Phocion,  "when  you  are  ready  for  it." 
Demosthenes,  however,  misunderstood  Philip,  whom 
he  regarded  as  a  barbarian;  he  placed  himself  at  the 
service  of  the  party  that  wished  to  make  war  on  him 
and  employed  all  his  eloquence  to  move  the  Athenians 
from  their  policy  of  peace.  For  fifteen  years  he  seized 
every  occasion  to  incite  them  to  war;  many  of  his 
speeches  have  no  other  object  than  an  attack  on  Philip. 
He  himself  called  these  Philippics,  and  there  are  three 
of  them.  (The  name  Olynthiacs  has  been  applied  to 
the  orations  delivered  with  the  purpose  of  enlisting 
the  Athenians  in  the  aid  of  Olynthus  when  it  was 
besieged  by  Philip.)  The  first  Philippic  is  in  352. 
"When,  then,  O  Athenians,  will  you  be  about  your 
duty?  Will  you  always  roam  about  the  public  places 
asking  one  of  another:  What  is  the  news?  Ah! 
How  can  there  be  anything  newer  than  the  sight 
of  a  Macedonian  conquering  Athens  and  dominating 
Greece?  I  say,  then,  that  you  ought  to  equip  fifty 
galleys  and  resolve,  if  necessary,  to  man  them  your- 
selves. Do  not  talk  to  me  of  an  army  of  10,000  or 
of  20,000  aliens  that  exists  only  on  paper.  I  would 
have  only  citizen  soldiers." 

In  the  third  Philippic  (341)  Demosthenes  calls  to 
the  minds  of  the  Athenians  the  progress  made  by 
Philip,  thanks  to  their  inaction.  "When  the  Greeks 
once  abused  their  power  to  oppress  others,  all  Greece 
rose  to  prevent  this  injustice;  and  yet  today  we  suf- 
fer an  unworthy  Macedonian,  a  barbarian  of  a  hated 
race,  to  destroy  Greek  cities,  celebrate  the  Pythian 
games,  or  have  them  celebrated  by  his  slaves.     And 


THE   GREEKS    IN   THE   ORIENT  179 

the  Greeks  look  on  without  doing  anything,  just  as 
one  sees  hail  falling  while  he  prays  that  it  may  not 
touch  him.  You  let  him  increase  his  power  without 
taking  a  step  to  stop  it,  each  regarding  it  as  so  much 
time  gained  when  he  is  destroying  another,  instead  of 
planning  and  working  for  the  safety  of  Greece,  when 
everybody  knows  that  the  disaster  will  end  with  the 
inclusion  of  the  most  remote." 

At  last,  when  Philip  had  taken  Elatea  on  the  borders 
of  Boeotia,  the  Athenians,  on  the  advice  of  Demos- 
thenes, determined  to  make  war  and  to  send  envoys 
to  Thebes.  Demosthenes  was  at  the  head  of  the  em- 
bassy; he  met  at  Thebes  an  envoy  come  from  Philip; 
the  Thebans  hesitated.  Demosthenes  besought  them 
to  bury  the  old  enmities  and  to  think  only  of  the  safety 
of  Greece,  to  defend  its  honor  and  its  liberty.  He  per- 
suaded them  to  an  alliance  with  Athens  and  to  under- 
take the  war.  A  battle  was  fought  at  Chaeronea  in 
Boeotia,  Demosthenes,  then  at  the  age  of  forty-eight, 
serving  as  a  private  hoplite.  But  the  army  of  the 
Athenians  and  Thebans,  levied  in  haste,  was  not  equal 
to  the  veterans  of  Philip  and  was  thrown  into  rout. 

The  Macedonian  Supremacy. — Philip,  victorious  at 
Chaeronea,  placed  a  garrison  in  Thebes  and  offered 
peace  to  Athens.  He  then  entered  the  Peloponnesus 
and  was  received  as  a  liberator  among  the  peoples 
whom  Sparta  had  oppressed.  From  this  time  he  met 
wath  no  resistance.  He  came  to  Corinth  and  as- 
sembled delegates  from  all  the  Greek  states  (337)'^ 
except  Sparta. 

*  There  were  two  assemblies  in  Corinth — the  first  in  338,  the 
second  in  337. — Ed. 


180  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Here  Philip  published  his  project  of  leading  a 
Greek  army  to  the  invasion  of  Persia.  The  delegate^ 
approved  the  proposition  and  made  a  general  con- 
federation of  all  the  Greek  states.  Each  city  was  to 
govern  itself  and  to  live  at  peace  with  its  neighbors. 
A  general  council  was  initiated  to  prevent  wars,  civil 
dissensions,  proscriptions,  and  confiscations. 

This  confederacy  made  an  alliance  with  the  king 
of  Macedon  and  conferred  on  him  the  command  of  all 
the  Greek  troops  and  navies.  Every  Greek  was  pro- 
hibited making  war  on  Philip  on  pain  of  banishment. 

Alexander. — Philip  of  Macedon  was  assassinated  in 
336.  His  son  Alexander  was  then  twenty  years  old. 
Like  all  the  Greeks  of  good  family  he  was  accustomed 
to  athletic  exercises,  a  vigorous  fighter,  an  excellent 
horseman  (he  alone  had  been  able  to  master  Bucepha- 
lus, his  war-horse).  But  at  the  same  time  he  was  in- 
formed in  politics,  in  eloquence,  and  in  natural  history, 
having  had  as  teacher  from  his  thirteenth  to  his  seven- 
teenth year  Aristotle,  the  greatest  scholar  of  Greece. 
He  read  the  Iliad  with  avidity,  called  this  the  guide 
to  the  military  art,  and  desired  to  imitate  its  heroes. 
He  was  truly  born  to  conquer,  for  he  loved  to  fight 
and  was  ambitious  to  distinguish  himself.  His  father 
said  to  him,  "Macedon  is  too  small  to  contain  you.'' 

The  Phalanx — Philip  left  a  powerful  instrument 
of  conquest,  the  Macedonian  army,  the  best  that  Greece 
had  seen.  It  comprised  the  phalanx  of  infantry  and 
a  corps  of  cavalry. 

The  phalanx  of  Macedonians  was  formed  of  16,000 
men  ranged  with  1,000  in  front  and  16  men  deep. 
Each  had  a  sarissa,  a  spear  about  twenty  feet  in  length. 


THE   GREEKS    IN   THE    ORIENT  181 

On  the  field  of  battle  the  Macedonians,  instead  of 
marching  on  the  enemy  facing  all  in  the  same  direc- 
tion, held  themselves  in  position  and  presented  their 
pikes  to  the  enemy  on  all  sides,  those  in  the  rear  couch- 
ing their  spears  above  the  heads  of  the  men  of  the 
forward  ranks.  The  phalanx  resembled  "a  monstrous 
beast  bristling  with  iron,"  against  which  the  enemy 
was  to  throw  itself.  While  the  phalanx  guarded  the 
field  of  battle,  Alexander  charged  the  enemy  at  the 
head  of  his  cavalry.  This  Macedonian  cavalry  was 
a  distinguished  body  formed  of  young  nobles. 

Departure  of  Alexander. — Alexander  started  in  the 
spring  of  334  with  30,000  infantry  (the  greater  part 
of  these  Macedonians)  and  4,500  knights;  he  carried 
only  seventy  talents  (less  than  eighty  thousand  dol- 
lars) and  supplies  for  forty  days.  He  had  to  combat 
not  only  the  crowd  of  ill-armed  peoples  such  as  Xerxes 
had  brought  together,  but  an  army  of  50,000  Greeks 
enrolled  in  the  service  of  the  Great  King  under  a 
competent  general,  Memnon  of  Rhodes.  These 
Greeks  might  have  withstood  the  invasion  of  Alex- 
ander, but  Memnon  died  and  his  army  dispersed. 
Alexander,  delivered  from  his  only  dangerous  oppo- 
nent, conquered  the  Persian  empire  in  two  years. 

Victories  of  Granicus,  Issus,  and  Arbela Three  vic- 
tories gave  the  empire  to  Alexander.  In  Asia  Minor 
he  overthrew  the  Persian  troops  stationed  behind  the 
river  Granicus  (May,  333).  At  Issus,  in  the  ravines 
of  Cilicia,  he  routed  King  Darius  and  his  army  of 
600,000  men  (November,  333).  At  Arbela,  near  the 
Tigris,  he  scattered  and  massacred  a  still  more  nu- 
merous army  (331). 


182  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

This  was  a  repetition  of  the  Median  wars.  The 
Persian  army  was  ill  equipped  and  knew  nothing  of 
manoeuvring;  it  was  embarrassed  with  its  mass  of 
soldiers,  valets,  and  baggage.  The  picked  troops 
alone  gave  battle,  the  rest  were  scattered  and  mas- 
sacred. Between  the  battles  the  conquest  was  only 
a  triumphal  progress.  Nobody  resisted  (except  the 
city  of  Tyre,  commercial  rival  of  the  Greeks)  ;  what 
cared  the  peoples  of  the  empire  whether  they  were  sub- 
ject to  Darius  or  Alexander  ?  Each  victory  gave  Alex- 
ander the  whole  of  the  country :  the  Granicus  opened 
Asia  Minor,  Issus  Syria  and  Egypt,  Arbela  the  rest  of 
the  empire. 

Death  of  Alexander — Master  now  of  the  Persian 
empire  Alexander  regarded  himself  as  the  heir  of  the 
Great  King.  He  assumed  Persian  dress,  adopted  the 
ceremonies  of  the  Persian  court  and  compelled  his 
Greek  generals  to  prostrate  themselves  before  him 
according  to  Persian  usage.  He  married  a  woman 
of  the  land  and  united  eighty  of  his  officers  to  daugh- 
ters of  the  Persian  nobles.  He  aimed  to  extend  his 
empire  to  the  farthest  limits  of  the  ancient  kings  and 
advanced  even  to  India,  warring  with  the  combative 
natives.  After  his  return  with  his  army  to  Babylon 
(324),  he  died  at  the  age  of  thirty-three,  succumbing 
to  a  fever  of  brief  duration  (323). 

Projects  of  Alexander — It  is  very  difficult  to  know 
exactly  what  Alexander's  purposes  were.  Did  he  con- 
quer for  the  mere  pleasure  of  it?  Or  did  he  have  a 
plan  ?  Did  he  wish  to  fuse  into  one  all  the  peoples  of 
his  empire?  Was  he  following  the  example  already 
set  him  by  Persia?     Or  did  he,  perhaps,  imitate  the 


THE   GREEKS    IN   THE   ORIENT  183 

Great  King  simply  for  vain-glory  ?  And  so  of  his  in- 
tentions we  know  nothing.  But  his  acts  had  great  re- 
sults. He  founded  seventy  cities — many  Alexandrias 
in  Egypt,  in  Tartary,  and  even  in  India.  He  distributed 
to  his  subjects  the  treasures  that  had  been  uselessly 
hoarded  in  the  chests  of  the  Great  King.  He  stimu- 
lated Greek  scholars  to  study  the  plants,  the  animals, 
and  the  geography  of  Asia.  But  what  is  of  special 
importance,  he  prepared  the  peoples  of  the  Orient  to 
receive  the  language  and  customs  of  the  Greeks.  This 
is  why  the  title  "Great"  has  been  assigned  to  Alex- 
ander. 

THE    HELLENES    IX    THE    ORIENT 

Dissolution  of  the  Empire  of  Alexander. — Alexander 
had  united  under  one  master  all  the  ancient  world  from 
the  Adriatic  to  the  Indus,  from  Egypt  to  the  Caucasus. 
This  vast  empire  endured  only  while  he  lived.  Soon 
after  his  death  his  generals  disputed  as  to  who  should 
succeed  him ;  they  made  war  on  one  another  for 
twenty  years,  at  first  under  the  pretext  of  supporting 
some  one  of  the  house  of  Alexander — his  brother,  his 
son,  his  mother,  his  sisters  or  one  of  his  wives,  later 
openly  in  their  own  names. 

Each  had  on  his  side  a  part  of  the  Macedonian 
army  or  some  of  the  Greek  mercenary  soldiers.  The 
Greeks  were  thus  contending  among  themselves  who 
should  possess  Asia.  The  inhabitants  were  indifferent 
in  these  wars  as  they  had  been  in  the  strife  between 
the  Greeks  and  the  Persians.  When  the  war  ceased, 
there  remained  but  three  generals ;  from  the  empire 


184  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

of  Alexander  each  of  them  had  carved  for  himself  a 
great  kingdom:  Ptolemy  had  Egypt,  Seleuciis  Syria, 
Lysimachus  Macedonia.  Other  smaller  kingdoms 
were  already  separated  or  detached  themselves  later : 
in  Europe  Epirus;  in  Asia  Minor,  Pontus,  Bithynia, 
Galatia,  Cappadocia,  Pergamos;  in  Persia,  Bactriana 
and  Parthia.  Thus  the  empire  of  Alexander  was  dis- 
membered. 

The  Hellenistic  Kingdoms — In  these  new  kingdoms 
the  king  was  a  Greek ;  accustomed  to  speak  Greek,  to 
adore  the  Greek  gods,  and  to  live  in  Greek  fashion,  he 
preserved  his  language,  his  religion,  and  his  customs. 
His  subjects  were  Asiatics,  that  is  to  say,  barbarians; 
but  he  sought  to  maintain  a  Greek  court  about  him ;  he 
recruited  his  army  with  Greek  mercenaries,  his  admin- 
istrative officers  were  Greeks,  he  invited  to  his  court 
Greek  poets,  scholars,  and  artists. 

Already  in  the  time  of  the  Persian  kings  there  were 
many  Greeks  in  the  empire  as  colonists,  merchants, 
and  especially  soldiers.  The  Greek  kings  attracted 
still  more  of  these.  They  came  in  such  numbers  that 
at  last  the  natives  adopted  the  costume,  the  religion, 
the  manners,  and  even  the  language  of  the  Greeks. 
The  Orient  ceased  to  be  Asiatic,  and  became  Hellenic. 
The  Romans  found  here  in  the  first  century  B.C.  only 
peoples  like  the  Greeks  and  who  spoke  Greek.^ 

Alexandria. — The  Greek  kings  of  Egypt,  descend- 
ants of  Ptolemy,^  accepted  the  title  of  Pharaoh  held 
by  the  ancient  kings,  wore  the  diadem,  and,  like 
the  earlier  sovereigns,  had  themselves  worshipped  as 

^  The  Gospels  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  composed  in  Asia 
Minor  were  written  in  Greek. 

2  They  were  called  Lagidae  from  the  father  of  Ptolemy  I. 


THE   GREEKS    IN   THE    ORIENT  185 

children  of  the  Sun.  But  they  surrounded  themselves 
with  Greeks  and  founded  their  capital  on  the  edge  of 
the  sea  in  a  Greek  city,  x\lexandria,  a  new  city  estab- 
lished by  the  order  of  Alexander. 

Built  on  a  simple  plan,  /\lexandria  was  more  regular 
than  other  Greek  cities.  The  streets  intersected  at 
right  angles ;  a  great  highw^ay  loo  feet  broad  and  three 
and  one-half  miles  in  length  traversed  the  whole  length 
of  the  city.  It  was  bordered  with  great  monuments — 
the  Stadium  where  the  public  games  were  presented, 
the  Gymnasium,  the  Museum,  and  the  Arsineum.  The 
harbor  was  enclosed  with  a  dike  nearly  a  mile  long 
which  united  the  mainland  to  the  island  of  Pharos.  At 
the  very  extremity  of  this  island  a  tower  of  marble  was 
erected,  on  the  summit  of  which  was  maintained  a  fire 
always  burning  to  guide  the  mariners  who  wished  to 
enter  the  port.  Alexandria  superseded  the  Phoenician 
cities  and  became  the  great  port  of  the  entire  world. 

The  Museum. — The  Museum  was  an  immense  edifice 
of  marble  connected  with  the  royal  palace.  The  kings 
of  Egypt  purposed  to  make  of  it  a  great  scientific  insti- 
tution. 

The  Museum  contained  a  great  library.^  The  chief 
librarian  had  a  commission  to  buy  all  the  books  that  he 
could  find.  Every  book  that  entered  Eg}'pt  was 
brought  to  the  library;  copyists  transcribed  the  man- 
uscript and  a  copy  was  rendered  the  owner  to  indem- 
nify him.     Thus  they  collected  400,000  volumes,  an 

*  The  library  of  the  Museum  was  burnt  during  the  siege  of 
Alexandria  by  Caesar.  But  it  had  a  successor  in  the  Serapeum 
which  contained  300,000  volumes.  This  is  said  to  have  been 
burnt  in  the  seventh  century  by  the  Arabs.  [The  tale  of  the  de- 
struction of  the  library  under  orders  of  Omar  is  doubtful. — Ed.] 


186  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

unheard-of  number  before  the  invention  of  printing. 
Until  then  the  manuscripts  of  celebrated  books  were 
scarce,  always  in  danger  of  being  lost;  now  it  was 
known  where  to  find  them.  In  the  Aluseum  were  also 
a  botanical  and  zoological  garden,  an  astronomical 
observatory,  a  dissecting  room  established  notwith- 
standing the  prejudices  of  the  Egyptians,  and  even  a 
chemical  laboratory.^ 

The  Museum  provided  lodgings  for  scholars,  math- 
ematicians, astronomers,  physicians,  and  grammarians. 
They  were  supported  at  the  expense  of  the  state ;  often 
to  show  his  esteem  for  them  the  king  dined  with  them. 
These  scholars  held  conferences  and  gave  lectures. 
Auditors  came  from  all  parts  of  the  Greek  world;  it 
was  to  Alexandria  that  the  youth  were  sent  for  in- 
struction.    In  the  city  were  nearly  14,000  students. 

The  Museum  was  at  once  a  library,  an  academy,  and 
a  school — something  like  a  university.  This  sort  of 
institution,  common  enough  among  us,  was  before  that 
time  completely  unheard  of.  Alexandria,  thanks  to  its 
Museum,  became  the  rendezvous  for  all  the  Orientals 
— Greeks,  Egyptians,  Jews,  and  Syrians ;  each  brought 
there  his  religion,  his  philosophy,  his  science,  and  all 
were  mingled  together.  Alexandria  became  and  re- 
mained for  several  centuries  the  scientific  and  philo- 
sophical capital  of  the  world. 

Pergamum. — The  kingdom  of  Pergamum  in  Asia 
Minor  was  small  and  weak.  But  Pergamum,  its  cap- 
ital, was,  like  Alexandria,  a  city  of  artists  and  of  let- 
ters.    The  sculptors  of  Pergamum  constituted  a  cele- 

*  King  Ptolemy  Philadelphus  who  had  great  fear  of  death 
passed  many  years  searching  for  an  ehxir  of  life. 


THE   GREEKS    IN   THE   ORIENT  187 

brated  school  in  the  third  century  before  our  era.^ 
Pergamum,  Hke  Alexandria,  possessed  a  great  library 
where  King  Attains  had  assembled  all  the  manuscripts 
of  the  ancient  authors. 

It  was  at  Pergamum  that,  to  replace  the  papyrus  on 
which  down  to  that  time  they  used  to  write,  they  in- 
vented the  art  of  preparing  skins.  This  new  paper  of 
Pergamum  was  the  parchment  on  which  the  man- 
uscripts of  antiquity  have  been  preserved. 

^  There  still  remain  to  us  some  of  the  statues  executed  by  the 
orders  of  King  Attalus  to  commemorate  his  victory  over  the 
Gauls  of  Asia. 


CHAPTER   XVI 
THE  LAST  YEARS  OF  GREECE 

DECADENCE  OF  THE  GREEK  CITIES 

Rich  and  Poor — In  almost  all  the  Greek  cities  the 
domains,  the  shops  of  trade,  the  merchant  ships,  in 
short,  all  the  sources  of  financial  profit  were  in  the 
hands  of  certain  rich  families.  The  other  families, 
that  is  to  say,  the  majority  of  the  citizens,^  had  neither 
lands  nor  money.  What,  then,  could  a  poor  citizen 
do  to  gain  a  livelihood  ?  Hire  himself  as  a  farmer,  an 
artisan,  or  a  sailor?  But  the  proprietors  already  had 
their  estates,  their  workshops,  their  merchantmen 
manned  by  slaves  who  served  them  much  more  cheaply 
than  free  laborers,  for  they  fed  them  ill  and  did  not 
pay  them.  Could  he  work  on  his  own  account  ?  But 
money  was  very  scarce ;  he  could  not  borrow,  since  in- 
terest was  at  the  rate  of  ten  per  cent.  Then,  too,  cus- 
tom did  not  permit  a  citizen  to  become  an  artisan. 
*Trade,"  said  the  philosophers,  "injures  the  body,  en- 
feebles the  soul  and  leaves  no  leisure  to  engage  in 
public  affairs."  "And  so,"  says  Aristotle,  "a  well-con- 
stituted city  ought  not  to  receive  the  artisan  into  citi- 
zenship."    The  citizens  in  Greece  constituted  a  noble 

*  In  almost  all  the  Greek  cities  there  was  no  middle  class.  In 
this  regard  Athens  with  its  thirteen  thousand  small  proprietors 
is  a  remarkable  exception. 

z88 


THE    LAST   YEARS   OF   GREECE  189 

class  whose  only  honorable  functions,  like  the  nobles  of 
ancient  France,  were  to  govern  and  go  to  war ;  work- 
ing with  the  hands  was  degrading.  Thus  by  the  com- 
petition of  slaves  and  their  exalted  situation  the  greater 
part  of  the  citizens  were  reduced  to  extreme  misery. 

Social  Strife. — The  poor  governed  the  cities  and  had 
no  means  of  living.  The  idea  occurred  to  them  to 
despoil  the  rich,  and  the  latter,  to  resist  them,  organized 
associations.  Then  every  Greek  city  was  divided  into 
two  parties :  the  rich,  called  the  minority,  and  the  poor, 
called  the  majority  or  the  people.  Rich  and  poor  hated 
one  another  and  fought  one  another.  When  the  poor 
got  the  upper  hand,  they  exiled  the  rich  and  confis- 
cated their  goods ;  often  they  even  adopted  these  two 
radical  measures : 

1.  The  abolition  of  debts; 

2.  A  new  partition  of  lands. 

The  rich,  when  they  returned  to  power,  exiled  the 
poor.  In  many  cities  they  took  this  oath  among  them- 
selves :  'T  swear  always  to  be  an  enemy  to  the  people 
and  to  do  them  all  the  injury  I  can." 

No  means  were  found  of  reconciling  the  two  parties : 
the  rich  could  not  persuade  themselves  to  surrender 
their  property ;  the  poor  were  unwilling  to  die  of  hun- 
ger. According  to  Aristotle  all  revolutions  have  their 
origin  in  the  distribution  of  wealth.  "Every  civil 
war,"  says  Polybius,  *'is  initiated  to  subvert  wealth." 

They  fought  savagely,  as  is  always  the  case  between 
neighbors.  "At  Miletus  the  poor  were  at  first  predom- 
inant and  forced  the  rich  to  fiee  the  city.  But  after- 
wards, regretting  that  they  had  not  killed  them  all, 
they  took  the  children  of  the  exiles,  assembled  them  in 


190  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

barns  and  had  them  trodden  under  the  feet  of  cattle. 
The  rich  reentered  the  city  and  became  masters  of  it. 
In  their  turn  they  seized  the  children  of  the  poor,  coated 
them  with  pitch,  and  burned  them  alive." 

Democracy  and  Oligarchy — Each  of  the  two  parties 
— rich  and  poor — had  its  favorite  form  of  government 
and  set  it  in  operation  when  the  party  held  the  city. 
The  party  of  the  rich  was  the  Oligarchy  which  gave  the 
government  into  the  hands  of  a  few  people.  That  of 
the  poor  was  the  Democracy  which  gave  the  power  to 
an  assembly  of  the  people.  Each  of  the  two  parties 
maintained  an  understanding  with  the  similar  party  in 
the  other  cities.  Thus  were  formed  two  leagues  which 
divided  all  the  Greek  cities :  the  league  of  the  rich,  or 
Oligarchy,  the  league  of  the  poor,  or  Democracy. 
This  regime  began  during  the  Peloponnesian  War. 
Athens  supported  the  democratic  party,  Sparta  the 
oligarchic.  The  cities  in  which  the  poor  had  the 
sovereignty  allied  themselves  with  Athens;  the  cities 
where  the  rich  governed,  with  Sparta.  Thus  at  Samos 
when  the  poor  gained  supremacy  they  slew  two  hun- 
dred of  the  rich,  exiled  four  hundred  of  them,  and 
confiscated  their  lands  and  houses.  Samos  then 
adopted  a  democratic  government  and  allied  itself  with 
Athens.  The  Spartan  army  came  to  besiege  Samos, 
bringing  with  it  the  rich  exiles  of  Samos  who  wished 
to  return  to  the  city  by  force.  The  city  was  captured, 
set  up  an  oligarchy,  and  joined  the  league  of  Sparta. 

The  Tyrants — At  length,  the  poor  perceived  that 
the  democratic  form  of  government  did  not  give  them 
strength  enough  to  maintain  the  contest.  In  most  of 
the  cities  they  consented  to  receive  a  chief.     This  chief 


THE    LAST    YEARS    OF    GREECE  191 

was  called  Tyrant.  He  governed  as  master  without 
obeying  any  law,  condemning  to  death,  and  confis- 
cating property  at  will.  Mercenames  defended  him 
against  his  enemies.  The  following  anecdote  repre- 
sents the  policy  of  the  tyrants :  'Teriander,  tyrant  of 
Corinth,  sent  one  day  to  Thrasybulus,  tyrant  of 
Miletus,  to  ask  what  conduct  he  ought  to  follow  in 
order  to  govern  with  safety.  Thrasybulus  led  the 
envoy  into  the  field  and  walked  with  him  through  the 
wheat,  striking  off  with  his  staff  all  heads  that  were 
higher  than  the  others.  He  sent  off  the  envoy  without 
further  advice.  The  messenger  took  him  for  a  fool, 
but  Periander  understood :  Thrasybulus  was  counsel- 
ling him  to  slay  the  principal  citizens. 

Everywhere  the  rich  were  killed  by  the  tyrant  and 
their  goods  confiscated;  often  the  wealth  was  dis- 
tributed among  the  poor.  This  is  why  the  populace 
always  sustained  the  tyrant. 

There  were  tyrants  in  Greece  from  the  sixth  cen- 
tury; some,  like  Pisistratus,  Polycrates,  and  Pittacus, 
were  respected  for  their  wisdom.  At  that  time  every 
man  was  called  tyrant  who  exercised  absolute  power 
outside  the  limits  of  the  constitution ;  it  was  not  a  title 
of  reproach. 

But  when  the  tyrants  made  incessant  warfare  on  the 
rich  they  became  sanguinary  and  so  were  detested. 
Their  situation  is  depicted  in  the  famous  story  of  Da- 
mocles. This  Damocles  said  to  Dionysius,  tyrant  of 
Syracuse,  ''You  are  the  happiest  of  men."  'T  will 
show  you  the  delight  of  being  a  tyrant,"  replied  Diony- 
sius. He  had  Damocles  served  with  a  sumptuous  feast 
and  ordered  his  servants  to  show  the  guest  the  same 


192  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

honors  as  to  himself.  During  the  feast  Damocles 
raised  his  eyes  and  perceived  a  sword  suspended  to 
the  ceiling  held  only  by  a  horse  hair,  and  hanging 
directly  over  his  head.  The  comparison  was  a  striking 
one — the  tyrant's  life  hung  only  by  a  thread.  The 
rich,  his  enemies,  watched  for  an  opportunity  to  cut  it, 
for  it  was  regarded  as  praiseworthy  to  assassinate  a 
tyrant.  This  danger  irritated  him  and  made  him  sus- 
picious and  cruel.  He  dared  not  trust  anybody,  be- 
lieved himself  secure  only  after  the  massacre  of  all  his 
enemies,  and  condemned  the  citizens  to  death  on  the 
slightest  suspicion.  Thus  the  name  tyrant  became  a 
synonym  of  injustice. 

Exhaustion  of  Greece. — The  civil  wars  between  rich 
and  poor  continued  for  nearly  three  centuries  (430- 
150  B.C.).  Many  citizens  were  massacred,  a  greater 
number  exiled.  These  exiles  wandered  about  in  pov- 
erty. Knowing  no  trade  but  that  of  a  soldier,  they 
entered  as  mercenaries  into  the  armies  of  Sparta, 
Athens,  the  Great  King,  the  Persian  satraps — in  short, 
of  anybody  who  would  hire  them.  There  were  50,- 
000  Greeks  in  the  service  of  Darius  against  Alexander. 
It  was  seldom  that  such  men  returned  to  their  own 
country. 

Thus  the  cities  lost  their  people.  At  the  same  time 
families  became  smaller,  many  men  preferring  not  to 
marry  or  raise  children,  others  having  but  one  or  two. 
*'Is  not  this,"  says  Polybius,  *'the  root  of  the  evil,  that 
of  these  two  children  war  or  sickness  removes  one, 
then  the  home  becomes  deserted  and  the  city  en- 
feebled?" A  time  came  when  there  were  no  longer 
enough  citizens  in  the  towns  to  resist  a  conqueror. 


THE   LAST   YEARS   OF   GREECE  193 

THE    ROMAN    CONQUEST 

The  Greek  Leagues. — The  most  discerning  of  the 

Greeks  commenced  to  see  the  danger  during  the  sec- 
ond war  of  Rome  with  Carthage.  In  an  assembly  held 
at  Naupactus  in  207  B.C.  a  Greek  orator  said,  "Turn 
your  eyes  to  the  Occident;  the  Romans  and  Cartha- 
ginians are  disputing  something  else  than  the  pos- 
session of  Italy.  A  cloud  is  forming  on  that  coast,  it 
increases,  and  impends  over  Greece."^ 

The  Greek  cities  at  this  time  grouped  themselves  in 
two  leagues  hostile  to  each  other.  Two  little  peoples, 
the  ^tolians  and  Achseans,  had  the  direction  of  them ; 
they  commanded  the  armies  and  determined  on  peace 
and  war,  just  as  Athens  and  Sparta  once  did.  Each 
league  supported  in  the  Greek  states  one  of  the  two 
political  parties — ^the  ^tolian  League  the  democratic, 
the  Achaean  League^  the  oligarchical. 

The  Roman  Allies — Neither  of  the  two  leagues  was 
strong  enough  to  unite  all  the  Greek  states.  The 
Romans  then  appeared.  Philip,  the  king  of  Macedon 
(197),  and  later  Antiochus,^  the  king  of  Syria  (193- 
169),  made  war  on  them.  Both  were  beaten.  Rome 
destroyed  their  armies  and  made  them  surrender  their 
fleets. 

^  Polybius,  v.,  104. 

2  The  Achaean  league  had  illustrious  leaders.  In  the  third 
century,  Aratus,  who  for  twenty-seven  years  (251-224)  traversed 
Greece,  expelling  tyrants,  recalling  the  rich  and  returning  to 
them  their  property  and  the  government;  in  the  second  century 
Philopoemen,  who  fought  the  tyrants  of  Sparta  and  died  by 
poison. 

^  There  were  two  kings  of  Syria  by  the  name  of  Antiochus, 
between  193  and  169. — Ed. 


194  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Perseus,  the  new  king  of  Macedon,  was  conquered, 
made  prisoner,  and  his  kingdom  overthrown  (167).^ 
The  Greeks  made  no  effort  to  unite  for  the  common  de- 
fence ;  rich  and  poor  persisted  in  their  strife,  and  each 
hated  the  other  more  than  the  foreigner.  The  demo- 
cratic party  alHed  itself  with  Macedon,  the  oHgarchical 
party  called  in  the  Romans.-  While  the  Theban  dem- 
ocrats were  fighting  in  the  army  of  Philip,  the  Theban 
oligarchs  opened  the  town  to  the  Roman  general.  At 
Rhodes  all  were  condemned  to  death  who  had  acted 
or  spoken  against  Rome.  Even  among  the  Achseans, 
Callicrates,  a  partisan  of  the  Romans,  prepared  a  list 
of  a  thousand  citizens  whom  he  accused  of  having 
been  favorable  to  Perseus;  these  suspects  were  sent 
to  Rome  where  they  were  held  twenty  years  without 
trial. 

The  Last  Fight — The  Romans  were  not  at  first  in- 
troduced as  enemies.  In  197  the  consul  Flamininus, 
after  conquering  the  king  of  Macedon,  betook  himself 
to  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth  and  before  the  Greeks  as- 
sembled to  celebrate  the  games,  proclaimed  that  "all 
the  Greek  peoples  were  free."  The  crowd  in  transports 
of  joy  approached  Flamininus  to  thank  him;  they 
wished  to  salute  their  liberator,  see  his  form,  touch 
his  hand ;  crowns  and  garlands  were  cast  upon  him. 
The  pressure  upon  him  was  so  great  that  he  was  nearly 
suffocated. 

^  The  decisive  battle  (Pydna)  was  fought  in  168.  Perseus 
walked  in  the  triumph  of  Paullus  the  next  year. — Ed. 

^  The  party  policies  of  the  Greeks  of  this  period  were  hardly  so 
clearly  drawn  as  the  above  would  seem  to  indicate.  Thus  the 
Achaean  League  allied  itself  with  Macedon  against  the  ^tolians 
and  against  Sparta.  The  ^tolians  leagued  with  the  Romans 
against  Macedon.— Ed. 


THE    LAST    YEARS    OF   GREECE  195 

The  Romans  seeing  themselves  in  control  soon 
wished  to  command.  The  rich  freely  recognized  their 
sovereignty;  Rome  served  them  by  shattering  the 
party  of  the  poor.  This  endured  for  forty  years.  At 
last  in  147,  Rome  being  engaged  with  Carthage,  the 
democratic  party  gained  the  mastery  in  Greece  and 
declared  war  on  the  Romans.  A  part  of  the  Greeks 
were  panic-stricken;  many  came  before  the  Roman 
soldiers  denouncing  their  compatriots  and  themselves ; 
others  betook  themselves  to  a  safe  distance  from  the 
cities ;  some  hurled  themselves  into  wells  or  over  preci- 
pices. The  leaders  of  the  opposition  confiscated  the 
property  of  the  rich,  abolished  debts,  and  gave  arms  to 
the  slaves.  It  was  a  desperate  contest.  Once  over- 
come, the  Achseans  reassembled  an  army  and  marched 
to  the  combat  with  their  wives  and  children.  The  gen- 
eral Dioeus  shut  himself  in  his  house  with  his  whole 
family  and  set  fire  to  the  building.  Corinth  had  been 
the  centre  of  the  resistance;  the  Romans  entered  it, 
massacred  the  men,  and  sold  the  women  and  children  as 
slaves.  The  city  full  of  masterpieces  of  art  was  pil- 
laged and  burnt;  pictures  of  the  great  painters  were 
thrown  into  the  dust,  Roman  soldiers  lying  on  them 
and  playing  at  dice. 

THE   HELLENES    IN    THE    OCCIDENT 

Influence  of  Greece  on  Rome The  Romans  at  the 

time  of  their  conquest  of  the  Greeks  were  still  only  sol- 
diers, peasants,  and  merchants;  they  had  no  statues, 
monuments,  literature,  science,  or  philosophy.  All  this 
was  found  among  the  Greeks.     Rome  sought  to  imi- 


196  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

tate  these,  as  the  Assyrian  conquerors  imitated  the 
Chaldeans,  as  the  Persians  did  the  Assyrians.  The 
Romans  kept  their  costume,  tongue,  and  reHgion,  and 
never  confused  these  with  those  of  the  Greeks.  But 
thousands  of  Greek  scholars  and  artists  came  to  es- 
tablish themselves  in  Rome  and  to  open  schools  of 
literature  and  of  eloquence.  Later  it  was  the  fashion 
for  the  youth  of  the  great  Roman  families  to  go  as 
students  to  the  schools  of  Athens  and  Alexandria. 
Thus  the  arts  and  science  of  the  Greeks  were  grad- 
ually introduced  into  Rome.  ''Vanquished  Greece 
overcame  her  savage  conqueror,"  says  Horace,  the 
Roman  poet;  ''she  brought  the  arts  to  uncultured 
Latium." 

Architecture. — The  Romans  had  a  national  arch- 
itecture. But  they  borrowed  the  column  from  the 
Greeks  and  often  imitated  their  buildings.  Many 
Roman  temples  resemble  a  Greek  temple. 

A  wealthy  Roman's  house  is  composed  ordinarily 
of  two  parts :  the  first,  the  ancient  Roman  house ;  the 
other  is  only  a  Greek  house  added  to  the  first. 

Sculpture. — The  Greeks  had  thousands  of  statues, 
in  temples,  squares  of  the  city,  gymnasia,  and  in  their 
dwellings.  The  Romans  regarded  themselves  as  the 
owners  of  everything  that  had  belonged  to  the  van- 
quished people.  Their  generals,  therefore,  removed  a 
great  number  of  statues,  transporting  them  to  the 
temples  and  the  porticos  of  Rome.  In  the  triumph 
of  ^milius  Paullus,  victor  over  the  king  of  Macedon 
(Perseus),  a  notable  spectacle  was  two  hundred  and 
fifty  cars  full  of  statues  and  paintings. 

Soon  the  Romans  became  accustomed  to  adorn  with 


THE    LAST   YEARS   OF   GREECE  197 

Statues  their  theatres,  council-halls,  and  private  villas ; 
every  great  noble  wished  to  have  some  of  them  and 
gave  commissions  for  them  to  Greek  artists.  Thus 
a  Roman  school  of  sculpture  was  developed  which  con- 
tinued to  imitate  ancient  Greek  models.  And  so  it  was 
Greek  sculpture,  a  little  blunted  and  disfigured,  which 
was  spread  over  all  the  world  subject  to  the  Romans. 

Literature. — The  oldest  Latin  writer  was  a  Greek, 
Livius  Andronicus,  a  freedman,  a  schoolmaster,  and 
later  an  actor.  The  first  works  in  Latin  were  trans- 
lations from  the  Greek.  Livius  Andronicus  had  trans- 
lated the  Odyssey  and  several  tragedies.  The  Roman 
people  took  pleasure  in  Greek  pieces  and  would  have 
no  others.  Even  the  Roman  authors  who  wrote  for 
the  theatre  did  nothing  but  translate  or  arrange  Greek 
tragedies  and  comedies.  Thus  the  celebrated  works 
of  Plautus  and  of  Terence  are  imitations  of  the  com- 
edies of  Menander  and  of  Diphilus,  now  lost  to  us. 

The  Romans  imitated  also  the  Greek  historians. 
For  a  long  time  it  was  the  fashion  to  write  history, 
even  Roman  history,  in  Greek. 

The  only  great  Roman  poets  declare  themselves 
pupils  of  the  Greeks.  Lucretius  writes  only  to  ex- 
pound the  philosophy  of  Epicurus  ;  Catullus  imitates  the 
poets  of  Alexander;  Vergil,  Theocritus  and  Homer; 
Horace  translates  the  odes  of  the  Greek  lyrics. 

Epicureans  and  Stoics. — The  Romans  had  a  practical 
and  literal  spirit,  very  indifferent  to  pure  science  and 
metaphysics.  They  took  interest  in  Greek  philosophy 
only  so  far  as  they  believed  it  had  a  bearing  on  morals. 

Epicureans  and  Stoics  were  two  sects  of  Greek 
philosophers.     The  Epicureans  maintained  that  pleas- 


198  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

ure  is  the  supreme  good,  not  sensual  pleasure,  but 
the  calm  and  reasonable  pleasure  of  the  temperate  man ; 
happiness  consists  in  the  quiet  enjoyment  of  a  peace- 
ful life,  surrounded  with  friends  and  without  concern 
for  imaginary  goods.  For  the  Stoics  the  supreme 
good  is  virtue,  which  consists  in  conducting  one's  self 
according  to  reason,  with  a  view  to  the  good  of  the 
whole  universe.  Riches,  honor,  health,  beauty,  all  the 
goods  of  earth  are  nothing  for  the  wise  man ;  even  if 
one  torture  him,  he  remains  happy  in  the  possession 
of  the  true  good. 

The  Romans  took  sides  for  one  or  the  other  phi- 
losophy, usually  without  thoroughly  comprehending 
either.  Those  who  passed  for  Epicureans  spent  their 
lives  in  eating  and  drinking  and  even  compared  them- 
selves to  swine.  Those  calling  themselves  Stoics,  like 
Cato  and  Brutus,  affected  a  rude  language,  a  solemn 
demeanor  and  emphasized  the  evils  of  life.  Never- 
theless these  doctrines,  spreading  gradually,  aided  in 
destroying  certain  prejudices  of  the  Romans.  Epi- 
cureans and  Stoics  were  in  harmony  on  two  points : 
they  disdained  the  ancient  religion  and  taught  that  all 
men  are  equal,  slaves  or  citizens,  Greeks  or  barbarians. 
Their  Roman  disciples  renounced  in  their  school  cer- 
tain old  superstitions,  and  learned  to  show  themselves 
less  cruel  to  their  slaves,  less  insolent,  toward  other 
peoples. 

The  conquest  of  Greece  by  the  Romans  gave  the  arts,, 
letters,  and  morals  of  the  Greeks  currency  in  the  west, 
just  as  the  conquest  of  the  Persian  empire  by  the 
Greeks  had  carried  their  language,  customs,  and  re- 
ligion into  the  Orient. 


CHAPTER   XVII 
ROME 

ANCIENT    PEOPLES    OF   ITALY 

THE   ETRUSCANS 

Etruria. — The  word  Italy  never  signified  for  the  an- 
cients the  same  as  for  us :  the  Po  Valley  ( Piedmont  and 
Lombardy)  was  a  part  of  Gaul.  The  frontier  country 
at  the  north  was  Tuscany.  The  Etruscans  who  dwelt 
there  have  left  it  their  name  (Tusci). 

Etruria  was  a  country  at  once  warm  and  humid ;  the 
atmosphere  hung  heavily  over  the  inhabitants.  The 
region  on  the  shore  of  the  sea  where  the  Etruscans 
had  most  of  their  cities  is  the  famous  Maremma,  a 
wonderfully  fertile  area,  covered  with  beautiful  forests, 
but  where  the  water  having  no  outlet  forms  marshes 
that  poison  the  air.  "In  the  Maremma,"  says  an 
Italian  proverb,  "one  gets  rich  in  a  year,  but  dies  in 
six  months." 

The  Etruscan  People. — The  Etruscans  were  for  the 
ancients,  and  are  still  for  us,  a  mysterious  people. 
They  had  no  resemblance  to  their  neighbors,  and  doubt- 
less they  came  from  a  distance — from  Germany,  Asia, 
or  from  Egypt;  all  these  opinions  have  been  main- 
tained, but  no  one  of  them  is  demonstrated. 

We  are  ignorant  even  of  the  language  that  they 
spoke.     Their  alphabet  resembles  that  of  the  Greeks, 

199 


200  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

but  the  Etruscan  inscriptions  present  only  proper 
names,  and  these  are  too  short  to  furnish  a  key  to  the 
language. 

The  Etruscans  established  twelve  cities  in  Tuscany, 
united  in  a  confederation,  each  with  its  own  fortress, 
its  king,  and  its  government.  They  had  colonies  on 
both  coasts,  twelve  in  Campania  in  the  vicinity  of 
Naples,  and  twelve  more  in  the  valley  of  the  Po. 

Etruscan  Tombs. — There  remain  to  us  from  the 
Etpuscans  only  city  walls  and  tombs. 

When  an  Etruscan  tomb  is  opened,  one  perceives  a 
porch  supported  by  columns  and  behind  this  chambers 
with  couches,  and  bodies  laid  on  these.  Round  about 
are  ornaments  of  gold,  ivory,  and  amber ;  purple  cloths, 
utensils,  and  especially  large  painted  vases.  On  the 
walls  are  paintings  of  combats,  games,  banquets,  and 
fantastic  scenes. 

Industry  and  Commerce — The  Etruscans  knew  how 
to  turn  their  fertile  soil  to  some  account,  but  they  were 
for  the  most  part  mariners  and  traders.  Like  the 
Phoenicians  they  made  long  journeys  to  seek  the  ivory 
of  India,  amber  from  the  Baltic,  tin,  the  Phoenician 
purple,  Egyptian  jewels  adorned  with  hieroglyphics, 
and  even  ostrich  eggs.  All  these  objects  are  found  in 
their  tombs.  Their  navies  sailed  to  the  south  as  far 
as  Sicily.  The  Greeks  hated  them  and  called  them 
"savage  Tyrrhenians"  or  ''Etruscan  pirates."  At  this 
time  every  mariner  on  occasion  was  a  pirate,  and 
the  Etruscans  were  especially  interested  to  exclude  the 
Greeks  so  that  they  might  keep  for  themselves  the 
trade  of  the  west  coast  of  Italy. 

The  famous  Etruscan  vases,  which  have  been  taken 


ROME  201 

from  the  tombs  by  the  thousand  to  enrich  our  museums, 
were  imitations  of  Greek  vases,  but  manufactured  by 
the  Etruscans.  They  represent  scenes  from  Greek 
mythology,  especially  the  combats  about  Troy;  the 
human  figures  are  in  red  on  a  black  ground. 

Religion. — The  Etruscans  were  a  sombre  people. 
Their  gods  were  stern,  often  malevolent.  The  two 
most  exalted  gods  were  ''the  veiled  deities,"  of  whom 
we  know  nothing.  Below  these  were  the  gods  who 
hurled  the  lightning  and  these  form  a  council  of  twelve 
gods.  Under  the  earth,  in  the  abode  of  the  dead, 
wxre  gods  of  evil  omen.  These  are  represented  on  the 
Etruscan  vases.  The  king  of  the  lower  world,  Man- 
tus,  a  winged  genius,  sits  w^ith  crown  on  his  head  and 
torch  in  his  hand.  Other  demons  armed  with  sword 
or  club  with  serpents  in  their  hands  receive  the  souls 
of  the  dead;  the  principal  of  these  under  the  name 
Charun  (the  Charon  of  the  Greeks),  an  old  man  of 
hideous  form,  bears  a  heavy  mallet  to  strike  his  victims. 
The  souls  of  the  dead  (the  IManes)  issue  from  the 
lower  world  three  days  in  the  year,  wandering  about 
the  earth,  terrifying  the  living  and  doing  them  evil. 
Human  victims  are  offered  to  appease  their  lust  for 
blood.  The  famous  gladiatorial  combats  which  the 
Romans  adopted  had  their  origin  in  bloody  sacrifices  in 
honor  of  the  dead. 

The  Augurs. — The  Etruscans  used  to  say  that  a  little 
evil  spirit  named  Tages  issued  one  day  from  a  furrow 
and  revealed  to  the  people  assembled  the  secrets  of 
divinatign.  The  Etruscan  priests  who  called  them- 
selves haruspices  or  augurs  had  rules  for  predicting  the 
future.     They  observed  the  entrails  of  victims,  the 


202  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

thunderbolt,  but  especially  the  flight  of  birds  (whence 
their  name  "augurs").  The  augur  at  first  with  face 
turned  to  the  north,  holding  a  crooked  staff  in  his  hand, 
describes  a  line  which  cuts  the  heavens  in  two  sections ; 
the  part  to  the  right  is  favorable,  to  the  left  unfavor- 
'able.  A  second  line  cutting  the  first  at  right  angles, 
and  others  parallel  to  these  form  in  the  heavens  a 
square  which  was  called  the  Temple.  The  augur  re- 
garded the  birds  that  flew  in  this  square :  some  like  the 
eagle  have  a  lucky  significance;  others  like  the  owl 
presage  evil. 

The  Etruscans  predicted  the  future  destiny  of  their 
own  people.  They  are  the  only  people  of  antiquity 
who  did  not  expect  that  they  were  to  persist  forever. 
Etruria,  they  said,  was  to  endure  ten  centuries.  These 
centuries  were  not  of  exactly  one  hundred  years  each, 
but  certain  signs  marked  the  end  of  each  period.  In 
the  year  44,  the  year  of  the  death  of  Caesar,  a  comet 
appeared ;  an  Etruscan  haruspex  stated  to  the  Romans 
in  an  assembly  of  the  people  that  this  comet  announced 
the  end  of  the  ninth  century  and  the  beginning  of  the 
tenth,  the  last  of  the  Etruscan  people. 

Influence  of  the  Etruscans The  Romans,  a  semi- 
barbarous  people,  always  imitated  their  more  civilized 
neighbors,  the  Etruscans.  They  drew  from  them  espe- 
cially the  forms  of  their  religion :  the  costume  of  the 
priests  and  of  the  magistrates,  the  religious  rites,  and* 
the  art  of  divining  the  future  from  birds  (the  auspices) . 
When  the  Romans  found  a  city,  they  observe  the 
Etruscan  rites :  the  founder  traces  a  square  enclosure 
with  a  plough  with  share  of  bronze,  drawn  by  a  white 
bull  and  a  white  heifer.     Men  follow  the  founder  and 


ROME  203 

carefully  cast  the  clods  of  earth  from  the  side  of  the 
furrow.  The  whole  ditch  left  by  the  plough  is  sacred 
and  is  not  to  be  crossed.  To  allow  entrance  to  the  en- 
closure, it  is  necessary  that  the  founder  break  the  ditch 
at  certain  points,  and  he  does  this  by  lifting  the  plough 
and  carrying  it  an  instant;  the  interval  made  in  this 
manner  remains  profane  and  it  becomes  the  gate  by 
which  one  enters.  Rome  itself  was  founded  according 
to  these  rites.  It  was  called  Roma  Quadrata,  and  it 
was  said  that  the  founder  had  killed  his  brother  to 
punish  him  for  crossing  the  sacred  furrow.  Later  the 
limits  of  Roman  colonies  and  of  camps,  and  even  the 
bounds  of  domains  were  always  traced  in  conformity 
with  religious  rules  and  with  geometrical  lines. 

The  Roman  religion  was  half  Etruscan.  The 
Fathers  of  the  church  were  right,  therefore,  in  calling 
Etruria  the  "Mother  of  Superstitions." 

THE    ITALIAN    PEOPLE 

Umbrians  and  Oscans. — In  the  rugged  mountains  of 
the  Apennines,  to  the  east  and  south  of  the  Roman 
plain,  resided  numerous  tribes.  These  peoples  did  not 
bear  the  same  name  and  did  not  constitute  a  single 
nation.  They  were  Umbrians,  Sabines,  Volscians, 
^quians,  Hernicans,  Marsians,  and  Samnites.  But  all 
spoke  almost  the  same  language,  worshipped  the  same 
gods,  and  had  similar  customs.  Like  the  Persians, 
Hindoos,  and  Greeks,  they  were  of  Aryan  race;  se- 
cluded in  their  mountains,  remote  from  strangers,  they 
remained  like  the  Aryans  of  the  ancient  period;  they 
lived  in  groups  with  their  herds  scattered  in  the  plains ; 


204  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

they  had  no  villages  nor  cities.  Fortresses  erected  on 
the  mountains  defended  them  in  time  of  war.  They 
were  brave  martial  people,  of  simple  and  substantial 
manners.  They  later  constituted  the  strength  of  the 
Roman  armies.  A  proverb  ran  :  "Who  could  vanquish 
the  Marsians  without  the  Marsians?" 

The  Sacred  Spring — In  the  midst  of  a  pressing 
danger,  the  Sabines,  according  to  a  legend,  believing 
their  gods  to  be  angry,  decided  to  appease  their  dis- 
pleasure by  sacrificing  to  the  god  of  war  and  of  death 
everything  that  was  born  during  a  certain  spring. 
This  sacrifice  was  called  a  "Sacred  Spring."  All  the 
children  born  in  this  year  belonged  to  the  god.  Ar- 
rived at  the  age  of  manhood,  they  left  the  country 
and  journeyed  abroad.  These  exiles  formed  several 
groups,  each  taking  for  guide  one  of  the  sacred  animals 
of  Italy,  a  woodpecker,  a  wolf,  or  a  bull,  and  followed 
it  as  a  messenger  of  the  god.  Where  the  animal  halted 
the  band  settled  itself.  Many  peoples  of  Italy,  it  was 
said,  had  originated  in  these  colonies  of  emigrants 
and  still  preserved  the  name  of  the  animal  which  had 
led  their  ancestors.  Such  were,  the  Hirpines  (people 
of  the  wolf),  the  Picentines  (people  of  the  wood- 
pecker), and  the  Samnites  whose  capital  was  named 
Bovianum  (city  of  the  ox). 

The  Samnites. — The  Samnites  were' the  most  power- 
ful of  all.  Settled  in  the  Abruzzi,  a  paradise  for  bri- 
gands, they  descended  into  the  fertile  plains  of  Naples 
and  of  Apulia  and  put  Etruscan  and  Greek  towns  to 
ransom. 

The  Samnites  fought  against  the  Romans  for  two 
centuries ;  although  always  beaten  because  they  had  no 


ROME  205 

central  administration  and  no  discipline  they  yet  re- 
opened the  war.  Their  last  fight  was  heroic.  An  old 
man  brought  to  the  chiefs  of  the  army  a  sacred  book 
wTitten  on  linen.  They  formed  in  the  interior  of  the 
camp  a  wall  of  linen,  raised  an  altar  in  the  midst  of  it, 
and  around  this  stood  soldiers  with  unsheathed  swords. 
One  by  one  the  bravest  of  the  warriors  entered  the 
precinct.  They  sw^ore  not  to  flee  before  the  enemy  and 
to  kill  the  fugitives.  Those  who  took  the  oath,  to  the 
number  of  16,000,  donned  linen  garments.  This  was 
the  ''linen  legion" ;  it  engaged  in  battle,  and  was  slaugh- 
tered to  the  last  man. 

The  Greeks  of  Italy — All  south  Italy  was  covered 
with  Greek  colonies,  some,  like  Sybaris,  Croton,  and 
Tarentum,  very  populous  and  powerful.  But  the 
Greeks  did  not  venture  on  the  Roman  coast  for  fear  of 
the  Etruscans.  Except  the  city  of  Cumse  the  Greek 
colonies  down  to  the  third  century  had  almost  no  rela- 
tions with  the  Romans. 

The  Latins. — The  Latins  dwelt  in  the  country  of  hills 
and  ravines  to  the  south  of  the  Tiber,  called  today  the 
Roman  Campagna.  They  were  a  small  people,  their 
territory  comprising  no  more  than  one  hundred  square 
miles.  They  were  of  the  same  race  as  the  other  Ital- 
ians, similar  to  them  in  language,  religion,  and  man- 
ners, but  slightly  more  advanced  in  civilization.  They 
cultivated  the  soil  and  built  strong  cities.  They  sep- 
arated themselves  into  little  independent  peoples.  Each 
people  had  its  little  territory,  its  city,  and  its  govern- 
ment. This  miniature  state  was  called  a  city.  Thirty 
Latin  cities  had  formed  among  themselves  a  religious 
association    analogous    to    the    Greek    amphictyonies. 


206  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Every  year  they  celebrated  a  common  festival,  when 
their  delegates,  assembled  at  Alba,  sacrificed  a  bull  in 
honor  of  their  common  god,  the  Latin  Jupiter. 

Rome. — On  the  frontier  of  Latium,  on  the  borders 
of  Etruria,  in  the  marshy  plain  studded  with  hills  that 
followed  the  Tiber,  rose  the  city  of  Rome,  the  centre 
of  the  Roman  people  scattered  in  the  plain.  The  land 
was  malarial  and  dreary ;  but  the  situation  was  good. 
The  Tiber  served  as  a  barrier  against  the  enemy  from 
Etruria,  the  hills  were  fortresses.  The  sea  was  but  six 
leagues  away,  far  enough  to  escape  fear  of  pirates,  and 
near  enough  to  permit  the  transportation  of  merchan- 
dise. The  port  of  Ostia  at  the  mouth  of  the  Tiber  was 
a  suburb  of  Rome,  as  Piraeus  was  of  Athens.  The 
locality  was  therefore  agreeable  to  a  people  of  soldiers 
and  merchants. 

Roma  Quadrata  and  the  Capitol — Of  the  first  cen- 
turies of  Rome  we  know  only  some  legends,  and  the 
Romans  knew  no  more  than  we.  Rome,  they  said, 
was  a  little  square  town,  limited  to  the  Palatine  Hill. 
The  founder  whom  they  called  Romulus  had  according 
to  the  Etruscan  forms  traced  the  circuit  with  the 
plough.  Every  year,  on  the  21st  of  April,  the  Romans 
celebrated  the  anniversary  of  these  ceremonies :  a  pro- 
cession marched  about  the  primitive  enclosure  and  a 
priest  fixed  a  nail  in  a  temple  in  commemoration  of  it. 
It  was  calculated  that  the  founding  had  occurred  in  the 
year  754^  b.c. 

On  the  other  hills  facing  the  Palatine  other  small 
cities  rose.     A  band  of   Sabine  mountaineers  estab- 
lished themselves  on  the  Capitoline,  a  group  of  Etrus- 
1  Rather  753  b.c. — Ed. 


ROME  207 

can  adventurers^  on  Mount  Coelius;  perhaps  there 
were  still  other  peoples.  All  these  small  settlements 
ended  with  uniting  with  Rome  on  the  Palatine.  A 
new  wall  was  built  to  include  the  seven  hills.  The 
Capitol  was  then  for  Rome  what  the  Acropolis  was  for 
Athens :  here  rose  the  temples  of  the  three  protecting 
deities  of  the  city — Jupiter,  Juno,  and  Minerva,  and 
the  citadel  that  contained  the  treasure  and  the  archives 
of  the  people.  In  laying  the  foundations,  it  was  said 
there  was  found  a  human  head  recently  cleft  from  the 
body;  this  head  was  a  presage  that  Rome  should  be- 
come the  head  of  the  world. 

^  There  were  three  tribes  in  old  Rome,  the  Ramnes  on  the 
Palatine,  the  Tities  or  Sabines  on  the  Capitoline,  and  the  Lu- 
ceres;  but  whether  the  last  were  Etruscans  or  Ramnians  or 
neither  is  uncertain. — Ed. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 
ROMAN  RELIGION 

The  Roman  Gods — The  Romans,  like  the  Greeks, 
beHeved  that  everything  that  occurs  in  the  world  was 
the  work  of  a  deity.  But  in  place  of  a  God  who  directs 
the  whole  universe,  they  had  a  deity  for  every  phe- 
nomenon which  they  saw.  There  was  a  divinity  to 
make  the  seed  sprout,  another  to  protect  the  bounds  of 
the  fields,  another  to  guard  the  fruits.  Each  had  its 
name,  its  sex,  and  its  functions. 

The  principal  gods  were  Jupiter,  god  of  the  heaven ; 
Janus,  the  two-faced  god  (the  deity  who  opens) ; 
Mars,  god  of  war ;  Mercury,  god  of  trade ;  Vulcan,  god 
of  fire;  Neptune,  god  of  the  sea;  Ceres,  goddess  of 
grains,  the  Earth,  the  Moon,  Juno,  and  Minerva. 

Below  these  were  secondary  deities.  Some  per- 
sonified a  quality — for  example.  Youth,  Concord, 
Health,  Peace.  Others  presided  over  a  certain  act  in 
life:  when  the  infant  came  into  the  world  there  were 
a  god  to  teach  him  to  speak,  a  goddess  to  teach  him  to 
drink,  another  charged  with  knitting  his  bones,  two  to 
accompany  him  to  school,  two  to  take  him  home  again. 
In  short,  there  was  a  veritable  legion  of  minor  special 
deities. 

Other  gods  protected  a  city,  a  certain  section  of 
the   city,   a  mountain,   a   forest;   every  river,    every 

208 


ROMAN   RELIGION  209 

fountain,  every  tree  had  its  little  local  divinity.  It  is 
this  that  makes  an  old  woman  in  a  Latin  romance  ex- 
claim, ''Our  country  is  so  full  of  gods  that  it  is  much 
easier  to  find  a  god  than  a  man." 

Form  of  the  Gods. — The  Romans,  unlike  the  Greeks, 
did  not  give  their  gods  a  precise  form.  For  a  long 
time  there  was  no  idol  in  Rome;  they  worshipped 
Jupiter  under  the  form  of  a  rock.  Mars  under  that  of 
a  sword.  It  was  later  that  they  imitated  the  wooden 
statues  of  the  Etruscans  and  the  marbles  of  the  Greeks. 
Perhaps  they  did  not  at  first  conceive  of  the  gods  as 
having  human  forms. 

Unlike  the  Greeks  they  did  not  imagine  marriage 
and  kinship  among  their  gods ;  they  had  no  legends  to 
tell  of  these  relationships ;  they  knew  of  no  Olympus 
where  the  gods  met  together.  The  Latin  language 
had  a  very  significant  word  for  designating  the  gods : 
they  were  called  Manifestations.  They  were  the 
manifestations  of  a  mysterious  divine  power.  This 
is  why  they  were  formless,  without  family  relation- 
ship, without  legends.  Everything  that  was  known 
of  the  gods  was  that  each  controlled  a  natural  force 
and  could  benefit  or  injure  men. 

Principles  of  the  Roman  Religion The  Roman  was 

no  lover  of  these  pale  and  frigid  abstractions ;  he  even 
seemed  to  fear  them.  AMien  he  invoked  them,  he 
covered  his  face,  perhaps  that  he  might  not  see  them. 
But  he  thought  that  they  were  potent  and  that  they 
would  render  him  service,  if  he  knew  how  to  please 
them.  *The  man  whom  the  gods  favor,"  says  Plautus, 
''they  cause  to  gain  wealth." 

The  Roman  conceives  of  religion  as  an  exchange 


210  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

of  good  offices;  the  worshipper  brings  offerings  and 
homage;  the  god  in  return  confers  some  advantage.^ 
If  after  having  made  a  present  to  the  god  the  man 
receives  nothing,  he  considers  himself  cheated.  Dur- 
ing the  illness  of  Germanicus  the  people  offered  sacri- 
fices for  his  restoration.  When  it  was  announced  that 
Germanicus  was  dead,  the  people  in  their  anger  over- 
turned the  altars  and  cast  the  statues  of  the  gods  into 
the  streets,  because  they  had  not  done  what  was  ex- 
pected of  them.  And  so  in  our  day  the  Italian  peasant 
abuses  the  saint  who  does  not  give  him  what  he  asks. 

Worship. — Worship,  therefore,  consists  in  doing 
those  things  that  please  the  gods.  They  are  presented 
with  fruits,  milk,  wine,  or  animal  sacrifices.  Some- 
times the  statues  of  the  gods  are  brought  from  their 
temples,  laid  on  couches,  and  served  with  a  feast.  As 
in  Greece,  magnificent  homes  (temples^)  were  built 
for  them,  and  diversions  were  arranged  for  them. 

Formalism. — But  it  is  not  enough  that  one  make  a 
costly  offering  to  the  gods.  The  Roman  gods  are 
punctilious  as  to  form;  they  require  that  all  the  acts 
of  worship,  the  sacrifices,  games,  dedications,  shall 
proceed  according  to  the  ancient  rules  (the  rites). 
When  one  desires  to  offer  a  victim  to  Jupiter,  one 
must  select  a  white  beast,  sprinkle  salted  meal  on  its 
head,  and  strike  it  with  an  axe;  one  must  stand  erect 

^  A  legend  represents  King  Numa  debating  with  Jupiter  the 
terms  of  a  contract:  "You  will  sacrifice  a  head  to  me?"  says 
Jupiter.  "Very  well,"  says  Numa,  "the  head  of  an  onion  that 
I  shall  take  in  my  garden."  "No,"  replies  Jupiter,  "but  I  want 
something  that  pertains  to  a  man."  "We  will  give  you  then 
the  tip  of  the  hair."  "But  it  must  be  alive."  "Then  we  will 
add  to  this  a  little  fish."  Jupiter  laughed  and  consented  to  this. 
'     2  In  Rome,  as  in  Greece,  the  temple  was  called  a  house. 


ROMAN    RELIGION  211 

with  hands  raised  to  heaven,  the  abode  of  Jupiter,  and 
pronounce  a  sacred  formula.  If  any  part  of  the  cere- 
monial fails,  the  sacrifice  is  of  no  avail;  the  god,  it 
is  thought,  will  have  no  pleasure  in  it.  A  magistrate 
may  be  celebrating  games  in  honor  of  the  protecting 
deities  of  Rome;  ''if  he  alters  a  word  in  his  formula, 
if  a  flute-player  rests,  if  the  actor  stops  short,  the 
games  do  not  conform  to  the  rites;  they  must  be 
recommenced."^ 

And  so  the  prudent  man  secures  the  assistance  of 
two  priests,  one  to  pronounce  the  formula,  the  other 
to  follow  the  ritual  accurately. 

Every  year  the  Arval  Brothers,  a  college  of  priests, 
assemble  in  a  temple  in  the  environs  of  Rome  where 
they  perform  a  sacred  dance  and  recite  a  prayer;  this 
is  written  in  an  archaic  language  which  no  one  any 
longer  comprehends,  so  much  so  that  at  the  beginning 
of  the  ceremony  a  written  formulary  must  be  given 
to  each  of  the  priests.  And  yet,  ever  since  the  time 
that  they  ceased  to  comprehend  it,  they  continued 
to  chant  it  without  change.  This  is  because  the 
Romans  hold  before  all  to  the  letter  of  the  law  in 
dealing  with  their  gods.  This  exactness  in  perform- 
ing the  prescribed  ritual  is  for  them  their  religion. 
And  so  they  regarded  themselves  as  "the  most  religious 
of  men."  "On  all  other  points  we  are  the  inferiors  or 
only  the  equals  of  other  peoples,  but  we  excel  all  in 
religion,  that  is,  the  worship  we  pay  the  gods." 

Prayer. — When  the  Roman  prays,  it  is  not  to  lift  his 
soul  and  feel  himself  in  communion  with  a  god,  but 
to  ask  of  him  a  service.  He  is  concerned,  then,  first 
^  The  remark  is  Cicero's. 


212  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

to  find  the  god  who  can  render  it.  "It  is  as  impor- 
tant," says  Varro,  ''to  know  what  god  can  aid  us  in 
a  special  case  as  to  know  where  the  carpenter  and 
baker  Hve."  Thus  one  must  address  Ceres  if  one 
wants  rich  harvests,  Mercury  to  make  a  fortune,  Nep- 
tune to  have  a  happy  voyage.  Then  the  suppHant  dons 
the  proper  garments,  for  the  gods  love  neatness;  he 
brings  an  offering,  for  the  gods  love  not  that  one 
should  come  with  empty  hands.  Then,  erect,  the  head 
veiled,  the  worshipper  invokes  the  god.  But  he  does 
not  know  the  exact  name  of  the  god,  for,  say  the 
Romans,  ''no  one  knows  the  true  names  of  the  gods." 
He  says,  then,  for  example,  "Jupiter,  greatest  and  best, 
or  whatever  is  the  name  that  thou  preferrest  .  .  .  ." 
Then  he  proposes  his  request,  taking  care  to  use  always 
the  clearest  expressions  so  that  the  god  may  make  no 
mistake.  If  a  libation  is  offered,  one  says,  "Receive 
the  homage  of  this  wine  that  I  am  pouring" ;  for  the 
god  might  think  that  one  would  present  other  wine 
and  keep  this  back.  The  prayers,  too,  are  long,  ver- 
bose, and  full  of  repetitions. 

Omens. — The  Romans,  like  the  Greeks,  believe  in 
omens.  The  gods,  they  think,  know  the  future,  and 
they  send  signs  that  permit  men  to  divine  them.  Be- 
fore undertaking  any  act,  the  Roman  consults  the 
gods.  The  general  about  to  engage  in  battle  examines 
the  entrails  of  victims ;  the  magistrates  before  holding 
an  assembly  regards  the  passing  birds  (called  "taking 
the  auspices") .  If  the  signs  are  favorable,  the  gods  are 
thought  to  approve  the  enterprise;  if  not,  they  are 
against  it.  The  gods  often  send  a  sign  that  had 
not  been  requested.     Every  unexpected  phenomenon 


ROMAN   RELIGION  213 

is  the  presage  of  an  event.  A  comet  appeared  be- 
fore the  death  of  Caesar  and  was  thought  to  have 
announced  it. 

When  the  assembly  of  the  people  deliberates  and  it 
thunders,  it  is  because  Jupiter  does  not  wish  that  any- 
thing shall  be  decided  on  that  day  and  the  assembly 
must  dissolve.  The  most  insignificant  fact  may  be 
interpreted  as  a  sign — a  flash  of  lightning,  a  word 
overheard,  a  rat  crossing  the  road,  a  diviner  met  on  the 
way.  And  so  when  Marcellus  had  determined  on  an 
enterprise,  he  had  himself  carried  in  a  closed  litter  that 
he  might  be  sure  of  not  seeing  anything  which  could 
impose  itself  on  him  as  a  portent. 

These  were  not  the  superstitions  of  the  populace; 
the  republic  supported  six  augurs  charged  with  pre- 
dicting the  future.  It  carefully  preserved  a  collection 
of  prophecies,  the  Sibylline  Books.  It  had  sacred 
chickens  guarded  by  priests.  No  public  act — assem- 
bly, election,  deliberation — could  be  done  without  the 
taking  of  the  auspices,  that  is  to  say,  observation  of  the 
flight  of  birds.  In  the  year  195  it  was  learned  that 
lightning  had  struck  a  temple  of  Jupiter  and  that  it 
had  hit  a  hair  on  the  head  of  the  statue  of  Hercules ; 
a  governor  wrote  that  a  chicken  with  three  feet  had 
been  hatched;  the  senate  assembled  to  discuss  these 
portents. 

The  Priests. — The  priest  in  Rome,  as  in  Greece,  is  not 
charged  with  the  care  of  souls,  he  exists  only  for  the 
service  of  the  god.  He  guards  his  temple,  administers 
his  property,  and  performs  the  ceremonies  in  his  honor. 
Thus  the  guild  of  the  Salii  (the  leapers)  watches  over 
a  shield  which  fell  from  heaven,  they  said,  and  which 


214  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

was  adored  as  an  idol ;  every  year  they  perform  a  dance 
in  arms,  and  this  is  their  sole  function. 

The  augurs  predict  the  future.  The  pontiffs  super- 
intend the  ceremonies  of  worship;  they  regulate  the 
calendar  and  fix  the  festivals  to  be  celebrated  on  the 
various  days  of  the  year. 

Neither  the  priests,  the  augurs,  nor  the  pontiffs  form 
a  separate  class.  They  are  chosen  from  among  the 
great  families  and  continue  to  exercise  all  the  functions 
of  state — judging,  presiding  over  assemblies,  and  com- 
manding armies.  This  is  the  reason  that  the  Roman 
priests,  potent  as  they  were,  did  not  constitute,  as  in 
Egypt,  a  sacerdotal  caste.  At  Rome  it  was  a  state 
religion,  but  not  a  government  by  the  priests. 

The  Dead — The  Romans,  like  the  Hindoos  and  the 
Greeks,  believed  that  the  soul  survived  the  body.  If 
care  were  taken  to  bury  the  body  according  to  the 
proper  rites,  the  soul  went  to  the  lower  world  and 
became  a  god;  otherwise  the  soul  could  not  enter  the 
abode  of  the  dead,  but  returned  to  the  earth  terrifying 
the  living  and  tormenting  them  until  suitable  burial 
was  performed.  Pliny  the  Younger^  relates  the  story 
of  a  ghost  which  haunted  a  house  and  terrified  to  death 
all  the  inhabitants  of  the  dwelling;  a  philosopher  who 
was  brave  enough  to  follow  it  discovered  at  the  place 
where  the  spectre  stopped  some  bones  which  had  not 
been  buried  in  the  proper  manner.  The  shade  of  the 
Emperor  Caligula  wandered  in  the  gardens  of  the 
palace ;  it  was  necessary  to  disinter  the  body  and  bury 
it  anew  in  regular  form. 

*  Pliny,  Epistles,  vii.,  27.  S&i  another  story  in  Plautus's 
Mostellaria. 


ROMAN    RELIGION  215 

Cult  of  the  Dead. — It  was  of  importance,  therefore, 
to  both  the  hving  and  the  dead  that  the  rites  should  be 
observed.  The  family  of  the  deceased  erected  a 
funeral  pile,  burned  the  body  on  it,  and  placed  the  ashes 
in  an  urn  which  was  deposited  in  the  tomb,  a  little 
chapel  dedicated  to  the  Alanes,^  i.e.,  the  souls  that  had 
become  gods.  On  fixed  days  of  the  year  the  relatives 
came  to  the  tomb  to  bring  food;  doubtless  they  be- 
lieved that  the  soul  was  in  need  of  nourishment,  for 
wine  and  milk  were  poured  on  the  earth,  flesh  of  vic- 
tims was  burned,  and  vessels  of  milk  and  cakes  were 
left  behind.  These  funeral  ceremonies  were  perpetu- 
ated for  an  indefinite  period ;  a  family  could  not  aban- 
don the  souls  of  its  ancestors,  but  continued  to  maintain 
their  tomb  and  the  funeral  feasts.  In  return,  these 
souls  which  had  become  gods  loved  and  protected  their 
posterity.  Each  family,  therefore,  had  its  guardian 
deities  which  they  called  Lares. 

Cult  of  the  Hearth — Each  family  had  a  hearth,  also, 
that  it  adored.  For  the  Romans,  as  for  the  Hindoos, 
fire  was  a  god  and  the  hearth  an  altar.  The  flame  was 
to  be  maintained  day  and  night,  and  offerings  made  on 
the  hearth  of  oil,  fat,  wine,  and  incense ;  the  fire  then 
became  brilliant  and  rose  higher  as  if  nourished  by  the 
offering. 

Before  beginning  his  meal  the  Roman  thanked  the 
god  of  the  hearth,  gave  him  a  part  of  the  food,  and 
poured  out  for  him  a  little  wine  (this  was  the  libation). 
Even  the  sceptical  Horace  supped  with  his  slaves  be- 
fore the  hearth  and  offered  libation  and  prayer. 

1  The  letters  D.M.  found  on  Roman  tombs  are  the  initials 
of  Dei  Manes. 


216  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Every  Roman  family  had  in  its  house  a  sanctuary 
where  were  to  be  found  the  Lares,  the  souls  of  the 
ancestors,  and  the  altar  of  the  hearth.  Rome  also  had 
its  sacred  hearth,  called  Vesta,  an  ancient  word  sig- 
nifying the  hearth  itself.  Four  virgins  of  the  noblest 
families,  the  Vestals,  were  charged  with  keeping  the 
hearth,  for  it  was  necessary  that  the  flame  should 
never  be  extinguished,  and  the  care  of  it  could  be  con- 
fided only  to  pure  beings.  If  a  Vestal  broke  her  vow, 
she  was  buried  alive  in  a  cave,  for  she  had  commit- 
ted sacrilege  and  had  endangered  the  whole  Roman 
people. 

THE    FAMILY 

Religion  of  the  Family. — All  the  members  of  a 
family  render  worship  to  the  same  ancestors  and  unite 
about  the  same  hearth.  They  have  therefore  the  same 
gods,  and  these  are  their  peculiar  possession.  The 
sanctuary  where  the  Lares^  were  kept  was  concealed  in 
the  house  and  no  stranger  was  to  approach  it.  Thus 
the  Roman  family  was  a  little  church;  it  had  its  re- 
ligion and  its  worship  to  which  no  others  than  its 
members  had  access.  The  ancient  family  was  very 
different  from  the  modern,  having  its  basis  in  the  prin- 
ciples of  religion. 

Marriage — The  first  rule  of  this  religion  is  that  one 
should  be  the  issue  of  a  regular  marriage  if  one  is  to 
have  the  right  of  adoring  the  ancestors  of  the  family. 
Roman  marriage,  therefore,  is  at  the  start  a  religious 
ceremony.  The  father  of  the  bride  gives  her  away 
outside  the  house  when  a  procession  conducts  her  to 

*  They  were  called  the  Penates,  that  is  to  say,  the  gods  of  the 
interior. 


ROMAN   RELIGION  217 

the  house  of  the  groom  chanting  an  ancient  sacred 
refrain,  *'Hymen,  O  Hymen!"  The  bride  is  then 
led  before  the  altar  of  the  husband  where  water  and 
fire  are  presented,  and  there  in  the  presence  of  the  gods 
of  the  family  the  bride  and  groom  divide  between 
them  a  cake  of  meal.  Marriage  at  this  period  was 
called  confarreatio  (communion  through  the  cake). 
Later  another  form  of  marriage  w^as  invented.  A  rela- 
tive of  the  bride  in  the  presence  of  witnesses  sells  her 
to  the  husband  who  declares  that  he  buys  her  for  his 
wife.     This  is  marriage  by  sale  (coemptio). 

For  the  Romans  as  for  the  Greeks  marriage  is  a 
religious  duty ;  religion  ordains  that  the  family  should 
not  become  extinct.  The  Roman,  therefore,  declares 
when  he  marries  that  he  takes  his  wife  to  perpetuate  the 
family  through  their  children.  A  noble  Roman  who 
sincerely  loved  his  wife  repudiated  her  because  she 
brought  him  no  children. 

The  Roman  Woman. — The  Roman  w^oman  is  never 
free.  As  a  young  girl,  she  belongs  to  her  father  who 
chooses  her  husband  for  her ;  married,  she  comes  under 
the  power  of  her  husband — the  jurisconsults  say  she 
is  under  his  "manus,"  i.e.^  she  is  in  the  same  position 
as  his  daughter.  The  woman  always  has  a  master 
w^ho  has  the  right  of  life  and  death  over  her.  And  yet, 
she  is  never  treated  like  a  slave.  She  is  the  equal  in 
dignity  of  her  husband;  she  is  called  the  mother  of 
the  family  (materfamilias)  just  as  her  husband  is 
called  the  father  of  the  family  (paterfamilias).  She 
is  the  mistress  in  the  house,  as  he  is  the  master.  She 
gives  orders  to  the  slaves  whom  she  charges  with  all 
the  heavy  tasks — the  grinding  of  the  grain,  the  making 


218  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

of  bread,  and  the  cooking.  She  sits  in  the  seat  of  honor 
(the  atrium),  spins  and  weaves,  apportions  work  to 
the  slaves,  watches  the  children,  and  directs  the  house. 
She  is  not  excluded  from  association  with  the  men,  like 
the  Greek  woman;  she  eats  at  the  table  with  her  hus- 
band, receives  visitors,  goes  into  town  to  dinner,  ap- 
pears at  the  public  ceremonies,  at  the  theatre,  and  even 
at  the  courts.  And  still  she  is  ordinarily  uncultured; 
the  Romans  do  not  care  to  instruct  their  daughters  ;  the 
quality  which  they  most  admire  in  woman  is  gravity, 
and  on  her  tomb  they  write  by  way  of  eulogy,  "She 
kept  the  house  and  spun  linen." 

The  Children — The  Roman  child  belongs  to  the 
father  like  a  piece  of  property.  The  father  has  the 
right  of  exposing  him  in  the  street.  If  he  accepts  the 
child,  the  latter  is  brought  up  at  first  in  the  house. 
Girls  remain  here  until  marriage ;  they  spin  and  weave 
under  the  supervision  of  their  mother.  The  boys  walk 
to  the  fields  with  their  father  and  exercise  themselves 
in  arms.  The  Romans  are  not  an  artistic  people ;  they 
require  no  more  of  their  children  than  that  they  know 
how  to  read,  write,  and  reckon;  neither  music  nor 
poetry  is  taught  them.  They  are  brought  up  to  be 
sober,  silent,  modest  in  their  demeanor,  and  obedient. 

The  Father  of  the  Family — The  master  of  the  house 
was  called  by  the  Romans  the  father  of  the  family. 
The  paterfamilias  is  at  once  the  proprietor  of  the 
domain,  the  priest  of  the  cult  of  the  ancestors,  and 
the  sovereign  of  the  family.  He  reigns  as  master 
in  his  house.  He  has  the  right  of  repudiating  his  wife, 
of  rejecting  his  children,  of  selling  them,  and  marrying 
them  at  his  pleasure.     He  can  take  for  himself  all  that 


ROMAN    RELIGION  219 

belongs  to  them,  everything  that  his  wife  brings  to  him, 
and  everything  that  his  children  gain;  for  neither  the 
wife  nor  the  children  may  be  proprietors.  Finally  he 
has  over  them  all^  the  ''right  of  life  and  death,"  that  is 
to  say,  he  is  their  only  judge.  If  they  commit  crime, 
it  is  not  the  magistrate  who  punishes  them,  but  the 
father  of  the  family  who  condemns  them.  One  day 
(i86  B.C.)  the  Roman  Senate  decreed  the  penalty  of 
death  for  all  those  who  had  participated  in  the  orgies 
of  the  cult  of  Bacchus.  The  men  were  executed,  but 
for  all  the  women  who  were  discovered  among  the 
guilty,  it  was  necessary  that  the  Senate  should  address 
itself  to  the  fathers  of  families,  and  it  was  these  who 
condemned  to  death  their  wives  or  their  daughters. 
"The  husband,"  said  the  elder  Cato,  ''is  the  judge  of 
the  wife,  he  can  do  with  her  as  he  will ;  if  she  has  com- 
mitted any  fault,  he  chastises  her;  if  she  has  drunk 
wine,  he  condemns  her;  if  she  has  been  unfaithful 
to  him,  he  kills  her."  When  Catiline  conspired  against 
the  Senate,  a  senator  perceived  that  his  own  son  had 
taken  part  in  the  conspiracy;  he  had  him  arrested, 
judged  him,  and  condemned  him  to  death. 

The  power  of  the  father  of  the  family  endured  as 
long  as  life;  the  son  was  never  freed  from  it.  Even 
if  he  became  consul,  he  remained  subject  to  the  power 
of  his  father.  When  the  father  died,  the  sons  became 
in  turn  fathers  of  families.  As  for  the  wife,  she  could 
never  attain  freedom ;  she  fell  under  the  power  of  the 
heir  of  her  husband;  she  could,  then,  become  subject 
to  her  own  son. 

*  In  the  language  of  the  Roman  law  the  wife,  children,  and 
slaves  "are  not  their  own  masters," 


CHAPTER    XIX 
THE  ROMAN  CITY 

FORMATION  OF  THE  ROMAN  PEOPLE 

The  Kings. — Tradition  relates  that  Rome  for  two 
centuries  and  a  half  was  governed  by  kings.  They 
told  not  only  the  names  of  these  kings  and  the  date 
of  their  death,  but  the  life  of  each. 

They  said  there  were  seven  kings.  Romulus,  the 
first  king,  came  from  the  Latin  city  of  Alba,  founded 
the  hamlet  on  the  Palatine,  and  killed  his  brother  who 
committed  the  sacrilege  of  leaping  over  the  sacred 
furrow  encircling  the  settlement ;  he  then  allied  himself 
with  Tatius,  a  Sabine  king.  (A  legend  of  later  origin 
added  that  he  had  founded  at  the  foot  of  the  hill-city 
a  quarter  surrounded  with  a  palisade  where  he  received 
all  the  adventurers  who  wished  to  come  to  him.) 

Numa  Pompilius,  the  second  king,  was  a  Sabine. 
It  was  he  who  organized  the  Roman  religion,  taking 
counsel  with  a  goddess,  the  nymph  Egeria  who  dwelt 
in  a  wood. 

The  third  king,  Tullus  Hostilius,  was  a  warrior.  He 
made  war  on  Alba,  the  capital  of  the  Latin  confedera- 
tion, took  and  destroyed  it. 

Ancus  Martins,  the  fourth  king,  was  the  grandson 
of  Numa  and  built  the  wooden  bridge  over  the  Tiber 


THE    ROMAN   CITY  221 

and  founded  the  port  of  Ostia  through  which  com- 
merce passed  up  the  river  to  Rome. 

The  last  three  kings  were  Etruscans.  Tarquin  the 
Elder  enlarged  the  territory  of  Rome  and  introduced 
religious  ceremonies  from  Etruria.  Servius  Tullius 
organized  the  Roman  army,  admitting  all  the  citizens 
without  distinction  of  birth  and  separating  them  into 
centuries  (companies)  according  to  wealth.  The  last 
king,  Tarquinius  Superbus,  oppressed  the  great  fami- 
lies of  Rome ;  some  of  the  nobles  conspired  against  him 
and  succeeded  in  expelling  him.  Since  this  time  there 
were  no  longer  any  kings.  The  Roman  state,  or  as 
they  said,  the  commonwealth  (res  publica)  was  gov- 
erned by  the  consuls,  two  magistrates  elected  each 
year. 

It  is  impossible  to  know  how  much  truth  there  is 
in  this  tradition,  for  it  took  shape  a  long  time  after  the 
Romans  began  to  write  their  history,  and  it  includes 
so  many  legends  that  we  cannot  accept  it  in  its  entirety. 

Attempt  has  been  made  to  explain  tliese  names  of 
kings  as  symbols  of  a  race  or  class.  The  early  history 
of  Rome  has  been  reconstructed  in  a  variety  of  ways, 
but  the  greater  the  labor  applied  to  it,  the  less  the 
agreement  among  students  with  regard  to  it. 

The  Roman  People. — About  the  fifth  century  before 
Christ  there  were  in  Rome  two  classes  of  people,  the 
patricians  and  the  plebeians.  The  patricians  were  the 
descendants  of  the  old  families  who  had  lived  from 
remote  antiquity  on  the  little  territory  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  city;  they  alone  had  the  right  to  appear  in  the 
assembly  of  the  people,  to  assist  in  religious  ceremonies, 
and  to  hold  office.     Their  ancestors  had  founded  the 


222  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Roman  state,  or  as  they  called  it,  the  Roman  city 
(Civitas),  and  these  had  bequeathed  it  to  them.  And 
so  they  were  the  true  people  of  Rome. 

The  Plebs. — The  plebeians  were  descended  from  the 
foreigners^  established  in  the  city,  and  especially  from 
the  conquered  peoples  of  the  neighboring  cities;  for 
Rome  had  gradually  subjected  all  the  Latin  cities  and 
had  forcibly  annexed  their  inhabitants.  Subjeqts  and 
yet  aliens,  they  obeyed  the  government  of  Rome,  but 
they  could  have  no  part  in  it.  They  did  not  possess 
the  Roman  religion  and  could  not  participate  in  its 
ceremonies.  They  had  not  even  the  ri'ght  of  inter- 
marrying with  the  patrician  families.  They  were 
called  the  plebs  (the  multitude)  and  were  not  con- 
sidered a  part  of  the  Roman  people.  In  the  old  prayers 
we  still  find  this  formula :  'Tor  the  welfare  of  the  peo- 
ple and  the  plebs  of  Rome." 

Strife  between  Patricians  and  Plebeians. — The  peo- 
ple and  the  plebs  were  like  two  distinct  peoples,  one  of 
masters,  the  other  of  subjects.  And  yet  the  plebeians 
were  much  like  the  patricians.  Soldiers,  like  them, 
they  served  in  the  army  at  their  own  cost  and  suffered 
death  in  the  service  of  the  Roman  people;  peasants 
like  them,  they  lived  on  their  domains.  Many  of  the 
plebeians  were  rich  and  of  ancient  family.  The  only 
difference  was  that  they  were  descended  from  a  great 
family  of  some  conquered  Latin  city,  while  the  patri- 
cians were  the  scions  of  an  old  family  in  the  conquer- 
ing city. 

Tribunes  of  the  Plebs — One  day,  says  the  legend, 

*  Probably   some   of   the    plebeians   originated   in    non-noble 
Ron»an  families. — Ed. 


THE    ROMAN   CITY  223 

the  plebeians,  finding  themselves  mistreated,  withdrew 
under  arms  to  a  mountain,  determined  to  break  with  the 
Roman  people.  The  patricians  in  consternation  sent 
to  them  Menenius  Agrippa  who  told  them  the  fable 
of  the  members  and  the  stomach.  The  plebs  consented 
to  return  but  they  made  a  treaty  with  the  people.  It 
was  agreed  that  their  chiefs  (they  called  them  tribunes 
of  the  plebs)  should  have  the  right  of  protecting  the 
plebeians  against  the  magistrates  of  the  people  and  of 
prohibiting  any  measure  against  them.  All  that  was 
necessary  was  to  pronounce  the  word  "Veto"  (I  for- 
bid) ;  this  single  word  stopped  everything;  for  religion 
prevented  attacks  on  a  tribune  under  penalty  of  being 
devoted  to  the  infernal  gods. 

Triumph  of  the  Plebs — The  strife  between  the  two 
orders  beginning  at  the  end  of  the  fifth  century  con- 
tinued for  two  centuries  (494  B.C.  to  about  300  b.c.).^ 

The  plebeians,  much  more  numerous  and  wealthy, 
ended  by  gaining  the  victory.  They  first  secured  the 
adoption  of  laws  common  to  the  two  orders;  after- 
ward that  marriage  should  be  permitted  between  the 
patricians  and  the  plebeians.  The  hardest  task  was 
to  obtain  the  high  magistracies,  or,  as  it  was  said, 
''secure  the  honors."  Religious  scruple  ordained,  in- 
deed, that  before  one  could  be  named  as  a  magistrate, 
the  gods  must  be  asked  for  their  approval  of  the  choice. 
This  was  determined  by  inspecting  the  flight  of  birds 
("taking  the  auspices").  But  the  old  Roman  religion 
allowed  the  auspices  to  be  taken  only  on  the  name 

^  We  know  the  story  of  this  contest  only  through  Livy  and 
Dionysius  of  Halicamassus ;  their  very  dramatic  account  has  be- 
come celebrated,  but  it  is  only  a  legend  frequently  altered  by 
falsifiers. 


224  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

of  a  patrician ;  it  was  not  believed  that  the  gods  could 
accept  a  plebeian  magistrate.  But  there  were  great 
plebeian  families  who  were  bent  on  being  the  equals 
of  the  patrician  families  in  dignity,  as  they  were  in 
riches  and  in  importance.  They  gradually  forced  the 
patricians  to  open  to  them  all  the  offices,  beginning  with 
the  consulship,  and  ending  with  the  great  pontifical 
office  (Pontifex  Maximus).  The  first  plebeian  consul 
was  named  in  366  B.C.,  the  first  plebeian  pontifex  max- 
imus in  302  B.c.^  Patricians  and  plebeians  then  coa- 
lesced and  henceforth  formed  but  one  people. 

THE    ROMAN    PEOPLE 

The  Right  of  Citizenship. — The  people  in  Rome,  as  in 
Greece,  is  not  the  whole  of  the  inhabitants,  but  the 
body  of  citizens.  Not  every  man  who  lives  in  the  ter- 
ritory is  a  citizen,  but  only  he  who  has  the  right  of  cit- 
izenship.    The  citizen  has  numerous  privileges : 

1.  He  alone  is  a  member  of  the  body  politic;  he 
alone  has  the  right  of  voting  in  the  assemblies  of  the 
Roman  people,  of  serving  in  the  army,  of  being  present 
at  the  religious  ceremonials  at  Rome,  of  being  elected 
a  Roman  magistrate.  These  are  what  were  called 
public  rights. 

2.  The  citizen  alone  is  protected  by  the  Roman  law ; 
he  only  has  the  right  of  marrying  legally,  of  becoming 
the  father  of  a  family,  that  is  to  say,  of  being  master 
of  his  wife  and  his  children,  of  making  his  will,  of 
buying  or  selling.     These  were  the  private  rights. 

*  The  pontificate  was  opened  to  the  plebeians  by  the  Ognlnian 
Law  of  300  B.C.  The  first  plebeian  pontifex  maximus  was  in 
254  B.C.     Livy,  Epitome,  xviii. — Ed. 


THE   ROMAN   CITY  225 

Those  who  were  not  citizens  were  not  only  excluded 
from  the  army  and  the  assembly,  but  they  could  not 
marry,  could  not  possess  the  absolute  power  of  the 
father,  could  not  hold  property  legally,  could  not  in- 
voke the  Roman  law,  nor  demand  justice  at  a  Roman 
tribunal.  Thus  the  citizens  constituted  an  aristocracy 
amidst  the  other  inhabitants  of  the  city.  But  they 
were  not  equal  among  themselves;  there  were  class 
differences,  or,  as  the  Romans  said,  ranks. 

The  Nobles. — In  the  first  rank  are  the  nobles.  A 
citizen  is  noble  when  one  of  his  ancestors  has  held  a 
magistracy,  for  the  magisterial  office  in  Rome  is  an 
honor,  it  ennobles  the  occupant  and  also  his  posterity. 

When  a  citizen  becomes  sedile,  praetor,  or  consul,  he 
receives  a  purple-bordered  toga,  a  sort  of  throne  (the 
curule  chair),  and  the  right  of  having  an  image  made 
of  himself.  These  images  are  statuettes,  at  first  in 
wax,  later  in  silver.  They  are  placed  in  the  atrium, 
the  sanctuary  of  the  house,  near  the  hearth  and  the 
gods  of  the  family ;  there  they  stand  in  niches  like  idols, 
venerated  by  posterity.  When  any  one  of  the  family 
dies,  the  images  are  brought  forth  and  carried  in  the 
funeral  procession,  and  a  relative  pronounces  the  ora- 
tion for  the  dead.  It  is  these  images  that  ennoble  a 
family  that  preserves  them.  The  more  images  there 
are  in  a  family,  the  nobler  it  is.  The  Romans  spoke 
of  those  who  were  "noble  by  one  image"  and  those  who 
were  *'noble  by  many  images." 

The  noble  families  of  Rome  were  very  few  (they 
would  not  amount  to  300),  for  the  magistracies  which 
conferred  nobility  were  usually  given  to  men  who  were 
already  noble 


226  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

The  Knights. — Below  the  nobles  were  the  knights. 
They  were  the  rich  who  were  not  noble.  Their  for- 
tune as  inscribed  on  the  registers  of  the  treasury  must 
amount  to  at  least  400,000^  sesterces.  They  were  mer- 
chants, bankers,  and  contractors ;  they  did  not  govern, 
but  they  grew  rich.  At  the  theatre  they  had  places 
reserved  for  them  behind  the  nobles. 

If  a  knight  were  elected  to  a  magistracy,  the  nobles 
called  him  a  "new  man"  and  his  son  became  noble. 

The  Plebs — Those  who  were  neither  nobles  nor 
knights  formed  the  mass  of  the  people,  the  plebs.  The 
majority  of  them  were  peasants,  cultivating  a  little  plat 
in  Latium  or  in  the  Sabine  country.  They  were  the 
descendants  of  the  Latins  or  the  Italians  who  were 
subjugated  by  the  Romans.  Cato  the  Elder  in  his 
book  on  Agriculture  gives  us  an  idea  of  their  manners : 
''Our  ancestors,  when  they  wished  to  eulogize  a  man, 
said  'a  good  workman,'  'a  good  farmer' ;  this  encomium 
seemed  the  greatest  of  all."^ 

Hardened  to  work,  eager  for  the  harvest,  steady  and 
economical,  these  laborers  constituted  the  strength  of 
the  Roman  armies.  For  a  long  time  they  formed  the 
assembly  too,  and  dictated  the  elections.  The  nobles 
who  wished  to  be  elected  magistrates  came  to  the 
parade-ground  to  grasp  the  hand  of  these  peasants 
C'prensare  manus,"  was  the  common  expression).  A 
candidate,  finding  the  hand  of  a  laborer  callous,  ven- 
tured to  ask  him,  *Ts  it  because  you  walk  on  your 

^  This  qualification  was  set  in  the  last  century  of  the  republic, 
—Ed. 

2  He  cites  several  of  their  old  proverbs:  "A  bad  farmer  is  one 
who  buys  what  his  land  can  raise."  "It  i§  bad  economy  to  do 
in  the  day  what  can  be  done  at  night.'- 


THE   ROMAN   CITY  227 

hands?"     He  was  a  noble  of  great  family,  but  he  was 
not  elected. 

The  Freedmen. — The  last  of  all  the  citizens  are  the 
freedmen,  once  slaves,  or  the  sons  of  slaves.  The 
taint  of  their  origin  remains  on  them;  they  are  not 
admitted  to  service  in  the  Roman  army  and  they  vote 
after  all  the  rest. 

THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  REPUBLIC 

The  Comitia. — The  government  of  Rome  called  itself 
a  republic  (Respublica),  that  is  to  say,  a  thing  of  the 
people.  The  body  of  citizens  called  the  people  was 
regarded  as  absolute  master  in  the  state.  It  is  this 
body  that  elects  the  magistrates,  votes  on  peace  and 
war,  and  that  makes  the  laws.  "The  law,"  say  the 
jurisconsults,  "is  what  the  Roman  people  ordains." 
At  Rome,  as  in  Greece,  the  people  do  not  appoint  depu- 
ties, they  pass  on  the  business  itself.  Even  after  more 
than  500,000  men  scattered  over  all  Italy  were  admit- 
ted into  the  citizenship,  the  citizens  had  to  go  in 
person  to  Rome  to  exercise  their  rights.  The  people, 
therefore,  meet  at  but  one  place ;  the  assembly  is  called 
the  Comitia. 

A  magistrate  convokes  the  people  and  presides  over 
the  body.  Sometimes  the  people  are  convoked  by  the 
blast  of  the  trumpet  and  come  to  the  parade-ground 
(the  Campus  Martins),  ranging  themselves  by  com- 
panies under  their  standards.  This  is  the  Comitia  by 
centuries.  Sometimes  they  assemble  in  the  market- 
place (the  forum)  and  separate  themselves  into  thirty- 
five  groups,  called  tribes.     Each  tribe  in  turn  enters  a.u 


228  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

enclosed  space  where  it  does  its  voting.  This  is  the 
Comitia  by  tribes.  The  magistrate  who  convokes  the 
assembly  indicates  the  business  on  which  the  suffrages 
are  to  be  taken,  and  when  the  assembly  has  voted,  it 
dissolves.  The  people  are  sovereign,  but  accustomed 
to  obey  their  chiefs. 

The  Magistrates. — Every  year  the  people  elect  offi- 
cials to  govern  them  and  to  them  they  delegate  absolute 
power.  These  are  called  magistrates  (those  who  are 
masters).  Lictors  march  before  them  bearing  a 
bundle  of  rods  and  an  axe,  emblems  of  the  magisterial 
powers  of  chastising  and  condemning  to  death.  The 
magistrate  has  at  once  the  functions  of  presiding  over 
the  popular  assembly  and  the  senate,  of  sitting  in  court, 
and  of  commanding  the  army;  he  is  master  every- 
where. He  convokes  and  dissolves  the  assembly  at 
will,  he  alone  renders  judgment,  he  does  with  the  sol- 
diers as  he  pleases,  putting  them  to  death  without  even 
taking  counsel  with  his  officers.  In  a  war  against  the 
Latins  Manlius,  the  Roman  general,  had  forbidden  the 
soldiers  leaving  camp :  his  son,  provoked  by  one  of  the 
enemy,  went  forth  and  killed  him;  Manlius  had  him 
arrested  and  executed  him  immediately. 

According  to  the  Roman  expression,  the  magistrate 
has  the  power  of  a  king;  but  this  power  is  brief  and 
divided.  The  magistrate  is  elected  for  but  one  year 
and  he  has  a  colleague  who  has  the  same  power  as 
himself.  There  are  at  once  in  Rome  two  consuls  who 
govern  the  people  and  command  the  armies,  and  several 
praetors  to  serve  as  subordinate  governors  or  com- 
manders and  to  pronounce  judgment.  There  are 
other  magistrates,  besides — two  censors,  four  aediles  to 


THE    ROMAN   CITY  229 

supervise  the  public  ways  and  the  markets,  ten  trib- 
unes of  the  plebs,  and  quaestors  to  care  for  the  state 
treasure. 

The  Censors. — The  highest  of  all  the  magistrates  are 
the  censors.  They  are  charged  with  taking  the  census 
every  five  years,  that  is  to  say,  the  enumeration  of  the 
Roman  people.  All  the  citizens  appear  before  them  to 
declare  under  oath  their  name,  the  number  of  their 
children  and  their  slaves,  the  amount  of  their  fortune ; 
all  this  is  .inscribed  on  the  registers.  It  is  their  duty, 
too,  to  draw  up  the  list  of  the  senators,  of  the  knights, 
and  of  the  citizens,  assigning  to  each  his  proper  rank 
in  the  city.  They  are  charged  as  a  result  with  making 
the  lustrum,  a  great  ceremony  of  purification  which 
occurs  every  five  years. ^ 

On  that  day  all  the  citizens  are  assembled  on  the 
Campus  Martins  arranged  in  order  of  battle;  thrice 
there  are  led  around  the  assembly  three  expiatory  vic- 
tims, a  bull,  a  ram,  and  a  swine;  these  are  killed  and 
their  blood  sprinkled  on  the  people ;  the  city  is  purified 
and  reconciled  with  the  gods. 

The  censors  are  the  masters  of  the  registration  and 
they  rank  each  as  they  please ;  they  may  degrade  a  sen- 
ator by  striking  him  from  the  senate-list,  a  knight  by 
not  registering  him  among  the  knights,  and  a  citizen 
by  not  placing  his  name  on  the  registers  of  the  tribes. 
It  is  for  them  an  easy  means  of  punishing  those  whom 
they  regard  at  fault  and  of  reaching  those  whom  the 
law  does  not  condemn.  They  have  been  known  to 
degrade  citizens  for  poor  tillage  of  the  soil  and  for 
having  too  costly  an  equipage,  a  senator  because  he 

^  After  the  completion  of  the  census. — Ed. 


230  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

possessed  ten  pounds  of  silver,  another  for  having 
repudiated  his  wife.  It  is  this  overweening  power  that 
the  Romans  call  the  supervision  of  morals.  It  makes 
the  censors  the  masters  of  the  city. 

The  Senate. — The  Senate  is  composed  of  about  300 
persons  appointed  by  the  censor.  But  the  censor  does 
not  appoint  at  random;  he  chooses  only  rich  citizens 
respected  and  of  high  family,  the  majority  of  them 
former  magistrates.  Almost  always  he  appoints  those 
who  are  already  members  of  the  Senate,  so  that  ordi- 
narily one  remains  a  senator  for  life.  The  Senate  is 
an  assembly  of  the  principal  men  of  Rome,  hence  its 
authority.  As  soon  as  business  is  presented,  one  of  the 
magistrates  convokes  the  senators  in  a  temple,  lays  the 
question  before  them,  and  then  asks  "what  they  think 
concerning  this  matter."  The  senators  reply  one  by 
one,  following  the  order  of  dignity.  This  is  what 
they  call  "consulting  the  Senate,"  and  the  judgment 
of  the  majority  is  a  senatus  consultum  (decree  of  the 
Senate).  This  conclusion  is  only  advisory  as  the  Sen- 
ate has  no  power  to  make  laws ;  but  Rome  obeys  this 
advice  as  if  it  were  a  law.  The  people  have  confidence 
in  the  senators,  knowing  that  they  have  more  experi- 
ence than  themselves;  the  magistrates  do  not  dare  to 
resist  an  assembly  composed  of  nobles  who  are  their 
peers.  And  so  the  Senate  regulates  all  public  busi- 
ness: it  declares  war  and  determines  the  number  of 
the  armies;  it  receives  ambassadors  and  makes  peace; 
it  fixes  the  revenues  and  the  expenses.  The  people 
ratify  these  measures  and  the  magistrates  execute  them. 
In  200  B.C.  the  Senate  decided  on  war  with  the  king  of 
Macedon,  but  the  people  in  terror  refused  to  approve 


THE   ROMAN   CITY  231 

it :  the  Senate  then  ordered  a  magistrate  to  convoKe  the 
comitia  anew  and  to  adopt  a  more  persuasive  speech. 
This  time  the  people  voted  for  the  war.  In  Rome 
it  was  the  people  who  reigned,  just  as  is  the  case 
with  the  king  in  England,  but  it  was  the  Senate  that 
governed. 

The  OfRces. — Being  magistrate  or  senator  in  Rome 
is  not  a  profession.  Magistrates  or  senators  spend  their 
time  and  their  money  without  receiving  any  salary.  A 
magistracy  in  Rome  is  before  all  an  honor.  Entrance 
to  it  is  to  nobles,  at  most  to  knights,  but  always  to 
the  rich ;  but  these  come  to  the  highest  magistracies 
only  after  they  have  occupied  all  the  others.  The  man 
who  aims  one  day  to  govern  Rome  must  serve  in  the 
army  during  ten  campaigns.  Then  he  may  be  elected 
quaestor  and  he  receives  the  administration  of  the  state 
treasury.  After  this  he  becomes  sedile,  charged  with 
the  policing  of  the  city  and  with  the  provision  of  the 
corn  supply.  Later  he  is  elected  praetor  and  gives 
judgment  in  the  courts.  Later  yet,  elected  consul,  he 
commands  an  army  and  presides  over  the  assemblies. 
Then  only  may  he  aspire  to  the  censorship.  This  is 
the  highest  round  of  the  ladder  and  may  be  reached 
hardly  before  one's  fiftieth  year.  The  same  man  has 
therefore,  been  financier,  administrator,  judge,  general, 
and  governor  before  arriving  at  this  original  function 
of  censor,  the  political  distribution  of  the  Roman  peo- 
ple. This  series  of  offices  is  what  is  called  the  "order 
of  the  honors."  Each  of  these  functions  lasts  but  one 
year,  and  to  rise  to  the  one  next  higher  a  new  election 
is  necessary.  In  the  year  which  precedes  the  voting 
one  must  show  one's  self  continually  in  the  streets. 


232  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

''circulate"  as  the  Romans  say  (ambire:  hence  the 
word  ''ambition"),  to  solicit  the  suffrages  of  the  peo- 
ple. For  all  this  time  it  is  the  custom  to  wear  a  white 
toga,  the  very  sense  of  the  word  "candidate"  (white 
garment). 


CHAPTER   XX 
ROMAN  CONQUEST 

THE  ROMAN  ARMY 

Military  Service. — To  be  admitted  to  service  in  the 
Roman  army  one  must  be  a  Roman  citizen.  It  is  nec- 
essary to  have  enough  weahh  to  equip  one's  self  at 
one's  own  expense,  for  the  state  furnishes  no  arms  to 
its  soldiers ;  down  to  402  b.c.  it  did  not  even  pay  them. 
And  so  only  those  citizens  are  enrolled  wdio  are  pro- 
vided with  at  least  a  small  fortune.  The  poor  (called 
the  proletariat)  are  exempt  from  service,  or  rather, 
they  have  no  right  to  serve.  Every  citizen  who  is 
rich  enough  to  be  admitted  to  the  army  owes  the  state 
twenty  campaigns ;  until  these  are  completed  the  man 
remains  at  the  disposition  of  the  consul  and  this  from 
the  age  of  seventeen  to  forty-six.  In  Rome,  as  in  the 
Greek  cities,  every  man  is  at  once  citizen  and  soldier. 
The  Romans  are  a  people  of  small  proprietors  dis- 
ciplined in  war. 

The  Levy. — When  there  was  need  of  soldig's,  the 
consul  ordered  all  the  citizens  qualified  for  service  to 
assemble  at  the  Capitol.  There  the  officers  elected  by 
the  people  chose  as  many  men  as  were  necessary  to 
form  the  army.  This  was  the  enrolment  (the  Romans 
called  it  the  Choice)  ;  then  came  the  military  oath. 
The  officers  first  took  the  oath,  and  then  the  rank  and 

233 


234  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

file;  they  swore  to  obey  their  general,  to  follow  him 
wherever  he  led  them  and  to  remain  under  the 
standards  until  he  released  them  from  their  oath.  One 
man  pronounced  the  formula  and  each  in  turn  ad- 
vanced and  said,  '1  also."  From  this  time  the  army 
was  bound  to  the  general  by  the  bonds  of  religion. 

Legions  and  Allies — The  Roman  army  was  at  first 
called  the  Legion  (levy).  When  the  people  increased 
in  number,  instead  of  one  legion,  several  were  formed. 

The  legion  was  a  body  of  4,200  to  5,000  men,  all 
Roman  citizens.  The  smallest  army  had  always  at 
least  one  legion,  every  army  commanded  by  a  consul 
had  at  least  two.  But  the  legions  constituted  hardly 
a  half  of  the  Roman  army.  All  the  subject  peoples  in 
Italy  were  required  to  send  troops,  and  these  soldiers, 
who  were  called  allies,  were  placed  under  the  orders 
of  Roman  officers.  In  a  Roman  army  the  allies  were 
always  a  little  more  numerous  than  the  citizens  of  the 
legions.  Ordinarily  with  four  legions  (16,800  men) 
there  were  enrolled  20,000  archers  and  40,000  horse 
from  the  allies.  In  the  Second  Punic  War,  in  218  B.C., 
26,000  citizens  and  45,000  allies  were  drawn  for  ser- 
vice. Thus  the  Roman  people,  in  making  war,  made 
use  of  its  subjects  as  well  as  of  its  citizens. 

Military  Exercises. — Rome  had  no  gymnasium ;  the 
future  soldiers  exercised  themselves  on  the  parade- 
ground,  the  Campus  Martins,  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Tiber.  There  the  young  man  marched,  ran,  leaped 
under  the  weight  of  his  arms,  fenced  with  his  sword, 
hurled  the  javelin,  wielded  the  mattock,  and  then,  cov- 
ered with  dust  and  with  perspiration,  swam  across  the 
Tiber.     Often  the  older  men,  sometimes  even  the  gen- 


ROMAN   CONQUEST  235 

erals,  mingled  with  the  young  men,  for  the  Roman 
never  ceased  to  exercise.  Even  in  the  campaign  the 
rule  was  not  to  allow  the  men  to  be  unoccupied ;  once 
a  day,  at  least,  they  were  required  to  take  exercise,  and 
when  there  was  neither  enemy  to  fight  nor  intrench- 
ment  to  erect,  they  were  employed  in  building  roads, 
bridges,  and  aqueducts. 

The  Camp. — The  Roman  soldier  carried  a  heavy 
burden — his  arms,  his  utensils,  rations  for  seventeen 
days,  and  a  stake,  in  all  sixty  Roman  pounds.  The 
army  moved  more  rapidly  as  it  was  not  encumbered 
W4th  baggage.  Every  time  that  a  Roman  army  halted 
for  camp,  a  surveyor  traced  a  square  enclosure,  and 
along  its  lines  the  soldiers  dug  a  deep  ditch ;  the  earth 
which  was  excavated,  thrown  inside,  formed  a  bank 
which  they  fortified  with  stakes.  The  camp  was  thus 
defended  by  a  ditch  and  a  palisade.  In  this  improvised 
fortress  the  soldiers  erected  their  tents,  and  in  the 
middle  was  set  the  Prsetorium,  the  tent  of  the  general. 
Sentinels  mounted  guard  throughout  the  night,  and  so 
prevented  the  army  from  being  surprised. 

The  Order  of  Battle. — In  the  presence  of  the  enemy 
the  soldiers  did  not  form  in  a  solid  mass,  as  did  the 
Greeks.  The  legion  was  divided  into  small  bodies  of 
1 20  men,  called  maniples  because  they  had  for  stand- 
ards bundles  of  hay.^  The  maniples  were  ranged  in 
quincunx  form  in  three  lines,  each  separated  from  the 
neighboring  maniple  in  such  a  way  as  to  manoeuvre  sep- 
arately. The  soldiers  of  the  maniples  of  the  first  line 
hurled  their  javelins,  grasped  their  swords,  and  began 
the  battle.     If  they  were  repulsed,  they  withdrew  to 

*  Wisps  or  bundles  of  hay  were  twisted  around  poles. — Ed. 


236  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

the  rear  through  the  vacant  spaces.  The  second  line 
of  the  maniples  then  in  turn  marched  to  the  combat. 
If  it  was  repulsed,  it  fell  back  on  the  third  line.  The 
third  line  was  composed  of  the  best  men  of  the  legion 
and  was  equipped  with  lances.  They  received  the 
others  into  their  ranks  and  threw  themselves  on  the 
enemy.  The  army  was  no  longer  a  single  mass  in- 
capable of  manoeuvring:  the  general  could  form  his 
lines  according  to  the  nature  of  the  ground.  At  Cy- 
noscephalse,  where  for  the  first  time  the  fwo  most  re- 
nowned armies  of  antiquity  met,  the  Roman  legion 
and  the  Macedonian  phalanx,  the  ground  was  bristling 
with  hills;  on  this  rugged  ground  the  16,000  Macedo- 
nion  hoplites  could  not  remain  in  order,  their  ranks 
were  opened,  and  the  Roman  platoons  threw  themselves 
into  the  gaps  and  demolished  the  phalanx. 

Discipline. — The  Roman  army  obeyed  a  rude  dis- 
cipline. The  general  had  the  right  of  life  and  death 
over  all  his  men.  The  soldier  who  quitted  his  post 
or  deserted  in  battle  was  condemned  to  death;  the 
lictors  bound  him  to  a  post,  beat  him  with  rods,  and 
cut  off  his  head;  or  the  soldiers  may  have  killed  him 
with  blows  of  their  staves.  When  an  entire  body  of 
troops  mutinied,  the  general  separated  the  guilty  into 
groups  of  ten  and  drew  by  lot  one  from  every  group 
to  be  executed.  This  was  called  decimation  (from 
decimus,  the  tenth).  The  others  were  placed  on  a 
diet  of  barley-bread  and  made  to  camp  outside  the 
lines,  always  in  danger  of  surprise  from  the  enemy. 
The  Romans  never  admitted  that  their  soldiers  were 
conquered  or  taken  prisoners :  after  the  battle  of  Can- 
nae the  3,000  soldiers  who  escaped  the  carnage  were 


ROMAN   CONQUEST  237 

sent  by  the  senate  to  serve  in  Sicily  without  pay  and 
without  honors  until  the  enemy  should  be  expelled 
from  Italy;  the  8,000  left  in  the  camp  were  taken  by 
Hannibal  who  offered  to  return  them  for  a  small 
ransom,  but  the  senate  refused  to  purchase  them. 

Colonies  and  Military  Roads — In  the  countries  that 
were  still  only  partially  subject,  Rome  established  a 
small  garrison.  This  body  of  soldiers  founded  a  town 
which  served  as  a  fortress,  and  around  about  it  the 
lands  were  cut  into  small  domains  and  distributed  to 
the  soldiers.  This  is  what  they  called  a  Colony.  The 
colonists  continued  to  be  Roman  citizens  and  obeyed 
all  commands  from  Rome.  Quite  different  from  a 
Greek  colony  which  emancipated  itself  even  to  the 
point  of  making  war  on  its  mother  city,  the  Roman 
colony  remained  a  docile  daughter.  It  was  only  a 
Roman  garrison  posted  in  the  midst  of  the  enemy. 
Almost  all  these  military  posts  were  in  Italy,  but  there 
were  others  besides;  Narbonne  and  Lyons  were  once 
Roman  colonies. 

To  hold  these  places  and  to  send  their  armies  to  a 
distance  the  Romans  built  military  roads.  These  were 
causeways  constructed  in  a  straight  line,  of  limestone, 
stone,  and  sand.  The  Romans  covered  their  empire 
with  them.  In  a  land  like  France  there  is  no  part 
where  one  does  not  find  traces  of  the  Roman  roads. 

CHARACTER  OF  THE  CONQUEST 

War. — There  was  at  Rome  a  temple  consecrated  to 
the  god  Janus  whose  gates  remained  open  while  the 
Roman  people  continued  at  war.     For  the  five  hun- 


238  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

dred  years  of  the  republic  this  temple  was  closed  but 
once  and  that  for  only  a  few  years.  Rome,  then,  lived 
in  a  state  of  war.  As  it  had  the  strongest  army  of 
the  time,  it  finished  by  conquering  all  the  other  peoples 
and  by  overcoming  the  ancient  world. 

Conquest  of  Italy. — Rome  began  by  subjecting  her 
neighbors,  the  Latins,  first,  then  the  little  peoples  of 
the  south,  the  Volscians,  the  ^quians,  the  Hernicans, 
later  the  Etruscans  and  the  Samnites,  and  finally  the 
Greek  cities.  This  was  the  hardest  and  slowest  of 
their  conquests :  beginning  with  the  time  of  the  kings, 
it  did  not  terminate  until  266,  after  four  centuries  of 
strife.^ 

The  Romans  had  to  fight  against  peoples  of  the  same 
race  as  themselves,  as  vigorous  and  as  brave  as  they. 
Some  who  were  not  content  to  obey  they  extermi- 
nated. The  rich  plains  of  the  Volscians  became  a 
swampy  wilderness,  uninhabitable  even  to  the  present 
time,  the  gloomy  region  of  the  Pontine  marshes. 

In  the  land  of  the  Samnites  there  were  still  recog- 
nizable, three  hundred  years  after  the  war,  the  forty- 
five  camps  of  Decius  and  the  eighty-six  of  Fabius,  less 
apparent  by  the  traces  of  their  intrenchments  than  by 
the  solitude  of  the  neighborhood. 

The  Punic  Wars. — Come  into  Sicily,  Rome  antag- 
onized Carthage.  Then  began  the  Punic  wars  (that  is 
to  say,  against  the  Phcenicians),  There  were  three  of 
these  wars.  The  first,  from  264  to  241,  was  determined 
by  naval  battles ;  Rome  became  mistress  of  Sicily.     It 

^  Regarding  all  these  Italian  wars  the  Romans  had  only  a 
number  of  legends,  most  of  them  developed  to  glorify  the  hero- 
ism of  some  ancestor  of  a  noble  family — a  Valerius,  a  Fabius, 
a  Decius,  or  a  Manlius. 


ROMAN   CONQUEST  239 

was  related  that  Rome  had  never  had  any  war-ships, 
that  she  took  as  a  model  a  Carthaginian  galley  cast 
ashore  by  accident  on  her  coast  and  began  by  exer- 
cising her  oarsmen  in  rowing  on  the  land.  This 
legend  is  without  foundation  for  the  Roman  navy  had 
long  endured.  This  is  the  Roman  account  of  this  war  : 
the  Roman  consul  Duillius  had  vanquished  the  Cartha- 
ginian fleet  at  ]\Iylse  (260)  ;  a  Roman  army  had  dis- 
embarked in  Africa  under  the  lead  of  Regulus,  had 
been  attacked  and  destroyed  (255)  ;  Regulus  was  sent 
as  a  prisoner  to  Rome  to  conclude  a  peace,  but  per- 
suading the  Senate  to  reject  it,  he  returned  to  Carthage 
where  he  perished  by  torture.  The  war  was  concen- 
trated in  Sicily  where  the  Carthaginian  fleet,  at  first 
victorious  at  Drepana,  was  defeated  at  the  yEgates 
Islands;  Hamilcar,  besieged  on  ]^Iount  Eryx,  signed 
the  peace. 

The  second  war  (from  218  to  201)  was  the  work  of 
Hannibal. 

The  third  war  was  a  war  of  extermination :  the 
Romans  took  Carthage  by  assault,  razed  it,  and  con- 
quered Africa. 

These  wars  had  long  made  Rome  tremble.  Carthage 
had  the  better  navy,  but  its  warriors  were  armed  ad- 
venturers fighting  not  for  country  but  for  pay,  lawless, 
terrible  under  a  general  like  Hannibal. 

Hannibal. — Hannibal,  who  directed  the  whole  of  the 
second  vvar  and  almost  captured  Rome,  was  of  the 
powerful  family  of  the  Barcas.  His  father  Hamilcar 
had  commanded  a  Carthaginian  army  in  the  first  Punic 
war  and  had  afterwards  been  charged  with  the  con- 
quest of  Spain.     Hannibal  was  then  but  a  child,  but 


240  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

his  father  took  him  with  him.  The  departure  of  an 
army  was  always  accompanied  by  sacrifices  to  the  gods 
of  the  country;  it  was  said  that  Hamilcar  after  the 
sacrifice  made  his  infant  son  swear  eternal  enmity  to 
Rome. 

Hannibal,  brought  up  in  the  company  of  the  soldiers, 
became  the  best  horseman  and  the  best  archer  of  the 
army.  War  was  his  only  aim  in  life;  his  only  needs, 
therefore,  were  a  horse  and  arms.  He  had  made  him- 
self so  popular  that  at  the  death  of  Hasdrubal  who  was 
in  the  command  of  the  army,  the  soldiers  elected  him 
general  without  waiting  for  orders  from  the  Car- 
thaginian senate.  Thus  Hannibal  found  himself  at  the 
age  of  twenty-one  at  the  head  of  an  army  which  was 
obedient  only  to  himself.  He  began  war,  regardless 
of  the  senate  at  Carthage,  by  advancing  to  the  siege 
of  Saguntum,  a  Greek  colony  allied  with  Rome;  he 
took  this  and  destroyed  it. 

The  glory  of  Hannibal  was  that  he  did  not  wait  for 
the  Romans,  but  had  the  audacity  to  march  into  Italy 
to  attack  them.  As  he  had  no  fleet,  he  resolved  to 
advance  by  land,  through  the  Pyrenees,  crossing  the 
Rhone  and  the  Alps.  He  made  sure  of  the  alliance  of 
the  Gallic  peoples  and  penetrated  the  Pyrenees  with  an 
army  of  60,000  men,  African  and  Spanish  mercenaries, 
and  with  2^7  war-elephants.  A  Gallic  people  wished  to 
stop  him  at  the  Rhone,  but  he  sent  a  detachment  to 
pass  the  river  some  leagues  farther  up  the  stream  and 
to  attack  the  Gauls  in  the  rear;  the  mass  of  the  army 
crossed  the  river  in  boats,  the  elephants  on  great 
rafts. 

He  next  ascended  the  valley  of  the  Isere  and  arrived 


ROMAN   CONQUEST  241 

at  the  Alps  at  the  end  of  October;  he  crossed  them 
regardless  of  the  snow  and  the  attacks  of  the  moun- 
taineers ;  many  men  and  horses  rolled  down  the  preci- 
pices. But  nine  days  were  consumed  in  attaining  the 
summits  of  the  Alps.  The  descent  was  very  difficult ; 
the  pass  by  which  he  had  to  go  was  covered  with  ice 
and  he  was  compelled  to  cut  a  road  out  of  the  rock. 
When  he  arrived  in  the  plain,  the  army  was  reduced  to 
half  its  former  number. 

Hannibal  met  three  Roman  armies  in  succession, 
first  at  the  Ticinus,  next  on  the  banks  of  the  Trebia, 
and  last  near  Lake  Trasimenus  in  Etruria.  He  routed 
all  of  them.  As  he  advanced,  his  army  increased  in 
number;  the  warriors  of  Cisalpine  Gaul  (northern 
Italy)  joined  him  against  the  Romans.  He  took  up 
position  beyond  Rome  in  xA.pulia,  and  it  was  here  that 
the  Roman  army  came  to  attack  him.  Hannibal  had 
an  army  only  half  as  large  as  theirs,  but  he  had  African 
cavalrymen  mounted  on  swift  horses;  he  formed  his 
lines  in  the  plain  of  Cannae  so  that  the  Romans  had 
the  sun  in  their  face  and  the  dust  driven  by  the  wind 
against  them;  the  Roman  army  was  surrounded  and 
almost  annihilated  (216).  It  was  thought  that  Han- 
nibal would  march  on  Rome,  but  he  did  not  consider 
himself  strong  enough  to  do  it.  The  Carthaginian 
senate  sent  him  no  reenforcements.  Hannibal  en- 
deavored to  take  Naples  and  to  have  Rome  attacked 
by  the  king  of  Macedon ;  he  succeeded  only  in  gaining 
some  towns  which  Rome  besieged  and  destroyed. 
Hannibal  remained  nine  years  in  south  Italy ;  at  last  his 
brother  Hasdrubal  started  with  the  army  of  Spain 
to  assist  him,  and  made  his  way  almost  to  central 


242  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Italy.  The  two  Carthaginian  armies  marched  to 
unite  their  forces,  each  opposed  by  a  Roman  army 
under  the  command  of  a  consul.  Nero,  facing  Han- 
nibal, had  the  audacity  to  traverse  central  Italy 
and  to  unite  with  his  colleague  who  was  intrenched 
against  Hasdrubal.  One  morning  Hasdrubal  heard  the 
trumpets  sounding  twice  in  the  camp  of  the  Romans, 
a  sign  that  there  were  two  consuls  in  the  camp.  He 
believed  his  brother  was  conquered  and  so  retreated; 
the  Romans  pursued  him,  he  was  killed  and  his  entire 
army  massacred.  Then  Nero  rejoined  the  army 
which  he  had  left  before  Hannibal  and  threw  the  head 
of  Hasdrubal  into  the  Carthaginian  camp  (207). 
Hannibal,  reduced  to  his  own  troops,  remained  in  Cala- 
bria for  five  years  longer.  The  descent  of  a  Roman 
army  on  Africa  compelled  him  to  leave  Italy ;  he  mas- 
sacred the  Italian  soldiers  who  refused  to  accompany 
him  and  embarked  for  Carthage  (203).  The  battle 
of  Zama  (202)  terminated  the  war.  Hannibal  had 
counted  as  usual  on  drawing  the  Romans  within  his 
lines  and  surrounding  them;  but  Scipio,  the  Roman 
general,  kept  his  troops  in  order  and  on  a  second  at- 
tack threw  the  enemy's  army  into  rout.  Carthage  was 
obliged  to  treat  for  peace ;  she  relinquished  everything 
she  possessed  outside  of  Africa,  ceding  Spain  to  the 
Romans.  She  bound  herself  further  to  surrender  her 
navy  and  the  elephants,  to  pay  over  $10,000,000  and 
to  agree  not  to  make  war  without  the  permission  of 
Rome. 

Hannibal  reorganized  Carthage  for  a  new  war.  The 
Romans,  disturbed  at  this,  demanded  that  the  Cartha- 
ginians put  him  to  death.     Hannibal  fled  to  Antiochus, 


ROMAN   CONQUEST  243 

king  of  Syria,  and  proposed  to  him  to  incite  a  revolt 
in  Italy  against  Rome;  but  Antiochus,  following  the 
counsel  of  his  courtiers,  distrusted  Hannibal  and  in- 
vaded Greece,  where  his  army  was  captured.  Hanni- 
bal withdrew  to  the  king  of  Bithynia.  The  Romans 
sent  Flamininus  thither  to  take  him,  but  Hannibal,  see- 
ing his  house  surrounded,  took  the  poison  which  he 
always  had  by  him  (183). 

Conquests  of  the  Orient — The  Greek  kings,  success- 
ors of  the  generals  of  Alexander,  divided  the  Orient 
among  them.selves.  The  most  powerful  of  these 
took  up  war  against  Rome;  but  they  were  defeated — 
Philip,  the  king  of  ]\Iacedon,  in  197,  his  son  Perseus 
in  168,,  Antiochus,  the  king  of  Syria,  in  190.  The 
Romans,  having  from  this  time  a  free  field,  conquered 
one  by  one  all  the  lands  which  they  found  of  use  to 
them:  Alacedon  (148),  the  kingdom  of  Pergamum 
(129),  the  rest  of  Asia  (from  74  to  64)  after  the  de- 
feat of  Mithradates,  and  Egypt  (30). 

With  the  exception  of  the  ^Macedonians,  the  Orient 
opposed  the  Romans  with  mercenaries  only  or  with 
undisciplined  barbarians  who  fled  at  the  first  onset. 
In  the  great  victory  over  Antiochus  at  Alagnesia  there 
were  only  350  Romans  killed.  At  Chseronea,  Sulla 
was  victorious  with  the  loss  of  but  twelve  men.  The 
other  kings,  now  terrified,  obeyed  the  Senate  without 
resistance. 

Antiochus  the  Great,  king  of  Syria,  having  con- 
quered a  part  of  Egypt,  was  bidden  by  Popilius  acting 
under  the  command  of  the  Senate  to  abandon  his  con- 
quest. Antiochus  hesitated ;  but  Popilius,  taking  a 
rod  in  his  hand,  drew  a  circle  about  the  king,  and  said. 


244  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

"Before  you  move  from  this  circle,  give  answer  to 
the  Senate."  Antiochus  submitted,  and  surrendered 
Egypt.  The  king  of  Numidia  desired  of  the  Senate 
that  it  should  regard  his  kingdom  as  the  property  of 
the  Roman  people.  Prusias,  the  king  of  Bithynia, 
with  shaved  head  and  in  the  garb  of  a  freedman,  pros- 
trated himself  before  the  Senate.  Mithradates  alone, 
king  of  Pontus,  endeavored  to  resist;  but  after  thirty 
years  of  war  he  was  driven  from  his  states  and  com- 
pelled to  take  his  life  by  poison. 

Conquest   of   the   Barbarian   Lands The   Romans 

found  more  difficult  the  subjection  of  the  barbarous 
and  warlike  peoples  of  the  west.  A  century  was  re- 
quired to  conquer  Spain.  The  shepherd  \^iriathus 
made  guerilla  warfare  on  them  in  the  mountains  of 
Portugal  (149-139),  overwhelmed  five  armies,  and 
compelled  even  a  consul  to  treat  for  peace ;  the  Senate 
got  rid  of  him  by  assassination. 

Against  the  single  town  of  Numantia  it  was  nec- 
essary to  send  Scipio,  the  best  general  of  Rome. 

The  little  and  obscure  peoples  of  Corsica,  of  Sar- 
dinia, and  of  the  mountains  of  Genoa  (the  Ligurians) 
were  always  reviving  the  war  with  Rome. 

But  the  most  indomitable  of  all  were  the  Gauls. 
Occupying  the  whole  of  the  valley  of  the  Po,  they 
threw  themselves  on  Italy  to  the  south.  One  of  their 
bands  had  taken  Rome  in  390.  Their  big  white  bodies, 
their  long  red  mustaches,  their  blue  eyes,  their  savage 
yells  terrified  the  Roman  soldiers.  As  soon  as  their 
approach  was  learned,  consternation  seized  Rome,  and 
the  Senate  proclaimed  the  levy  of  the  whole  army  (they 
called  this  the  "Gallic  tumult").     These  wars  were 


ROMAN   CONQUEST  245 

the  bloodiest  but  the  shortest;  the  first  (225-222)  gave 
to  the  Romans  all  Cisalpine  Gaul  (northern  Italy)  ;  the 
second  (120),  the  Rhone  lands  (Languedoc,  Provence, 
Dauphine)  ;  the  third  (58-51),  all  the  rest  of  Gaul. 

ROMAN    WARFARE 

The  Triumph. — When  a  general  has  won  a  great  vic- 
tory, the  Senate  permits  him  as  a  signal  honor  to  cel- 
ebrate the  triumph.  This  is  a  religious  procession  to 
the  temple  of  Jupiter.  The  magistrates  and  senators 
march  at  the  head ;  then  come  the  chariots  filled  with 
booty,  the  captives  chained  by  the  feet,  and,  at  last,  on 
a  golden  car  drawn  by  four  horses,  the  victorious  gen- 
eral crowned  with  laurel.  His  soldiers  follow  him  sing- 
ing songs  with  the  solemn  refrain  'To,  Triomphe."^ 
The  procession  traverses  the  city  in  festal  attire  and 
ascends  to  the  Capitol :  there  the  victor  lays  down  his 
laurel  on  the  knees  of  Jupiter  and  thanks  him  for  giv- 
ing victory.  After  the  ceremony  the  captives  are  im- 
prisoned, or,  as  in  the  case  of  Vercingetorix,  beheaded, 
or,  like  Jugurtha,  cast  into  a  dungeon  to  die  of  hun- 
ger. The  triumph  of  ^milius  Paullus,  conqueror  of 
Macedon,  lasted  for  three  days.  The  first  day  wit- 
nessed a  procession  of  250  chariots  bearing  pictures  and 
statues,  the  second  the  trophies  of  weapons  and  25 
casks  of  silver,  the  third  the  vases  of  gold  and  120  sac- 
rificial bulls.  At  the  rear  walked  King  Perseus,  clad 
in  black,  surrounded  by  his  followers  in  chains  and  his 
three  young  children  who  extended  their  hands  to  the 
people  to  implore  their  pity. 

*  These  songs  were  mingled  with  coarse  ribaldry  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  general. — Ed. 


246  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Booty — In  the  wars  of  antiquity  the  victor  took  pos- 
session of  everything  that  had  belonged  to  the  van- 
quished, not  only  of  the  arms  and  camp-baggage,  but  of 
the  treasure,  the  movable  property,  beasts  of  the  hos- 
tile people,  the  men,  women,  and  children.  At  Rome 
the  booty  did  not  belong  to  the  soldiers  but  to  the 
people.  The  prisoners  were  enslaved,  the  property 
was  sold  and  the  profits  of  the  sale  turned  into  the 
public  chest.  And  so  every  war  was  a  lucrative  enter- 
prise. The  kings  of  Asia  had  accumulated  enormous 
treasure  and  this  the  Roman  generals  transported  to 
Rome.  The  victor  of  Carthage  deposited  in  the 
treasury  more  than  100,000  pounds  of  silver;  the 
conqueror  of  Antiochus  140,000  pounds  of  silver  and 
1,000  pounds  of  gold  without  counting  the  coined 
metals;  the  victor  over  Persia  remitted  120,000,000 
sesterces. 

The  Allies  of  Rome — The  ancient  world  was  divided 
among  a  great  number  of  kings,  little  peoples,  and  cities 
that  hated  one  another.  They  never  united  for  resist- 
ance and  so  Rome  absorbed  them  one  by  one. 

Those  whom  she  did  not  attack  remained  neutral 
and  indifferent;  often  they  even  united  with  the 
Romans.  In  the  majority  of  her  wars  Rome  did  not 
fight  alone,  but  had  the  assistance  of  allies :  against 
Carthage,  the  king  of  Numidia;  against  the  king  of 
Macedon,  the  yEtolians ;  against  the  king  of  Syria,  the 
Rhodians.  In  the  east  many  kings  proudly  assumed 
the  title,  of  "Ally  of  the  Roman  People."  In  the 
countries  divided  into  small  states,  some  peoples  called 
in  the  Romans  against  their  neighbors,  receiving  the 
Roman  army,  furnishing  it  with  provisions,  and  guid- 


ROMAN   CONQUEST  247 

ing  it  to  the  frontiers  of  the  hostile  country.  And  so 
in  Gaul  it  was  Marseilles  that  introduced  the  Romans 
into  the  valley  of  the  Rhone;  it  was  the  people  of 
Autun  (the  ^Edui)  who  permitted  them  to  establish 
themselves  in  the  heart  of  the  land. 

Motives  of  Conquest. — The  Romans  did  not  from  the 
first  have  the  purpose  to  conquer  the  world.  Even 
after  winning  Italy  and  Carthage  they  waited  a  century 
before  subjecting  the  Orient  which  really  laid  itself  at 
their  feet.  They  conquered,  it  appears,  without  pre- 
determined plan,  and  because  they  all  had  interest  in 
conquest.  The  magistrates  who  were  leaders  of  the 
armies  saw  in  conquest  a  means  of  securing  the  honors 
of  the  triumph  and  the  surest  instrument  for  making 
themselves  popular.  The  most  powerful  statesmen  in 
Rome,  Papirius,  Fabius,  the  two  Scipios,  Cato,  Marius, 
Sulla,  Pompey,  Caesar,  and  Crassus,  were  victorious 
generals.  The  nobles  who  composed  the  Senate 
gained  by  the  increase  of  Roman  subjects,  and  with 
these  they  allied  themselves  as  governors  to  receive 
their  homage  and  their  presents.  For  the  knights — 
that  is  to  say,  the  bankers,  the  merchants,  and  the  con- 
tractors— every  new  conquest  was  a  new  land  to  ex- 
ploit. The  people  itself  profited  by  the  booty  taken 
from  the  enemy.  After  the  treasure  of  the  king  of 
Macedon  was  deposited  in  the  public  chest,  taxes  were 
finally  abolished.  As  for  the  soldiers,  as  soon  as  war 
was  carried  into  rich  lands,  they  received  immense 
sums  from  their  general,  to  say  nothing  of  what  they 
took  from  the  vanquished.  The  Romans  conquered 
the  world  less  for  glory  than  for  the  profits  of  war. 


248  ANCIENT  CIVILIZATION 


EFFECTS    OF    ROMAN    CONQUEST 

The  Empire  of  the  Roman  People. — Rome  subjected 
all  the  lands  around  the  Mediterranean  from  Spain  to 
Asia  Minor.  These  countries  were  not  ajinexed,  their 
inhabitants  did  not  become  citizens  of  Rome,  nor  their 
territory  Roman  territory.  They  remained  aliens  en- 
tering simply  into  the  Rom^n  empire,  that  is,  under 
the  domination  of  the  Roman  people.  In  just  the  same 
way  today  the  Hindoos  are  not  citizens  but  subjects 
of  England ;  India  is  a  part,  not  of  England,  but  of  the 
British  Empire. 

The  Public  Domain. — When  a  conquered  people 
asked  peace,  this  is  the  formula  which  its  deputies 
were  expected  to  pronounce:  *'We  surrender  to  you 
the  people,  the  town,  the  fields,  the  waters,  the  gods 
of  the  boundaries,  and  movable  property;  all  things 
which  belonged  to  the  gods  and  to  men  we  deliver  to 
the  power  of  the  Roman  people."  By  this  act,  the 
Roman  people  became  the  proprietor  of  everything 
that  the  vanquished  possessed,  even  of  their  persons. 
Sometimes  it  sold  the  inhabitants  into  slavery:  ^mil- 
ius  Paullus  sold  150,000  Epeirots  who  surrendered  to 
him.  Ordinarily  Rome  left  to  the  conquered  their 
liberty,  but  their  territory  was  incorporated  into  the 
domain  of  the  Roman  people.  Of  this  land  three  equal 
parts  were  made : 

I.  A  part  of  their  lands  was  returned  to  the  people, 
but  on  condition  that  they  pay  a  tribute  in  money  or 
in  grain,  and  Rome  reserved  the  right  of  recalling  the 
land  at  will. 


ROMAN    CONQUEST  249 

2.  The  fields  and  pastures  were  farmed  out  to 
publicans. 

3.  Some  of  the  uncultivated  land  was  resigned  to 
the  first  occupant,  every  Roman  citizen  having  the 
right  of  settling  there  and  of  cultivating  it. 

Agrarian  Laws — The  Agrarian  Laws  which  deeply 
agitated  Rome  were  concerned  with  this  public  domain. 
No  Roman  had  leave  to  expel  the  possessors,  for  the 
boundaries  of  these  domains  were  gods  (Termini) 
and  religious  scruple  prevented  them  from  being  dis- 
turbed. By  the  Agrarian  Laws  the  people  resumed  the 
lands  of  the  public  domain  which  they  distributed  to 
citizens  as  property.  Legally  the  people  had  the  right 
to  do  this,  since  all  the  domain  belonged  to  them.  But 
for  some  centuries  certain  subjects  or  citizens  had  been 
permitted  to  enjoy  these  lands;  at  last  they  regarded 
them  as  their  ow^n  property;  they  bequeathed  them, 
bought  and  sold  them.  To  take  these  from  the  occu- 
pants would  suddenly  ruin  a  multitude  of  people.  In 
Italy  especially,  if  this  were  done,  all  the  people  of  a 
city  would  be  expelled.  Thus  Augustus  deprived  the 
inhabitants  of  Mantua  of  the  whole  of  their  territory ; 
Vergil  was  among  the  victims,  but,  thanks  to  his  verse, 
he  obtained  the  return  of  his  domain,  while  the  other 
proprietors  who  were  not  poets  remained  in  exile. 
These  lands  thus  recovered  were  sometimes  distributed 
to  poor  citizens  of  Rome,  but  most  frequently  to  old 
soldiers.  Sulla  bestowed  lands  on  120,000  veterans  at 
the  expense  of  the  people  of  Etruria.  The  Agrarian 
Laws  were  a  menace  to  all  the  subjects  of  Rome,  and  it 
was  one  of  the  benefits  conferred  by  the  emperors  that 
they  were  abolished. 


CHAPTER    XXI 
THE  CONQUERED  PEOPLES 

THE  PROVINCIALS 

The  Provinces. — The  inhabitants  of  conquered  coun- 
tries did  not  enter  into  Roman  citizenship,  but  re- 
mained strangers  (peregrini),  while  yet  subjects  of  the 
Roman  empire.  They  were  to  pay  tribute — the  tithe 
of  their  crops,  a  tax  in  silver,  a  capitation  tax.  They 
must  obey  Romans  of  every  order.  But  as  the  Roman 
people  could  not  itself  administer  the  province,  it  sent 
a  magistrate  in  its  place  with  the  mission  of  governing. 
The  country  subject  to  a  governor  was  called  province 
(which  signifies  mission). 

At  the  end  of  the  republic  (in  46),  there  were  sev- 
enteen provinces :  ten  in  Europe,  five  in  Asia,  two  in 
Africa — the  majority  of  these  very  large.  Thus  the 
entire  territory  of  Gaul  constituted  but  four  provinces, 
and  Spain  but  two.  *'The  provinces,"  said  Cicero, 
"are  the  domains  of  the  Roman  people" — if  it  made 
all  these  peoples  subjects,  it  was  not  for  their  advan- 
tage, but  for  its  own.  Its  aim  was  not  to  administer, 
but  to  exploit  them. 

The  Proconsuls. — For  the  administration  of  a  prov- 
ince the  Roman  people  always  appointed  a  magistrate, 
consul  or  praetor,  who  was  just  finishing  the  term  of 
his  office,  and  whose  prerogative  it  prolonged.^     The 

*  In  the  smallest  provinces  the  title  of  the  governor  was 
proprcetor. 

250 


THE   CONQUERED    PEOPLES  251 

proconsul,  like  the  consul,  had  absolute  power  and  he 
could  exercise  it  to  his  fancy,  for  he  was  alone  in  his 
province ;  ^  there  were  no  other  magistrates  to  dispute 
the  powder  with  him,  no  tribunes  of  the  people  to  veto 
his  acts,  no  senate  to  watch  him.  He  alone  com- 
manded the  troops,  led  them  to  battle,  and  posted  them 
where  he  wished.  He  sat  in  his  tribunal  (praetorium) 
condemning  to  fine,  imprisonment,  or  death.  He 
promulgated  decrees  which  had  the  force  of  law.  He 
was  the  sole  authority  over  himself  for  he  was  in  him- 
self the  incarnation  of  the  Roman  people. 

Tyranny  and  Oppression  of  the  Proconsuls. — This 
governor,  whom  no  one  resisted,  was  a  true  despot. 
He  made  arrests,  cast  into  prison,  beat  with  rods,  or 
executed  those  who  displeased  him.  The  following  is 
one  of  a  thousand  of  these  caprices  of  the  governor  as 
a  Roman  orator  relates  it :  "At  last  the  consul  came 
to  Termini,  where  his  wife  took  a  fancy  to  bathe  in 
the  men's  bath.  All  the  men  who  were  bathing  there 
were  driven  out.  The  wife  of  the  consul  complained 
that  it  had  not  been  done  quickly  enough  and  that  the 
baths  were  not  well  prepared.  The  consul  had  a  post 
set  up  in  a  public  place,  brought  to  it  one  of  the  most 
eminent  men  of  the  city,  stripped  him  of  his  garments, 
and  had  him  beaten  with  rods." 

The  proconsul  drew  from  the  province  as  much 
money  as  he  wanted ;  thus  he  regarded  it  as  his  private 
property.  Means  were  not  wanting  to  exploit  it.  He 
plundered  the  treasuries  of  the  cities,  removed  the 
statues  and  jewels  stored  in  the  temples,  and  made 

*  In  the  oriental  countries  Rome  left  certain  little  kings  (like 
King  Herod  in  Judaea),  but  they  paid  tribute  and  obeyed  the 
governor. 


252  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

requisitions  on  the  rich  inhabitants  for  money  or  grain. 
As  he  was  able  to  lodge  troops  where  he  pleased,  the 
cities  paid  him  money  to  be  exempt  from  the  presence 
of  the  soldiers.  As  he  could  condemn  to  death  at  will, 
individuals  gave  him  security-money.  If  he  demanded 
an  object  of  art  or  even  a  sum  of  money,  who  would 
dare  to  refuse  him?  The  men  of  his  escort  imitated 
his  example,  pillaging  under  his  name,  and  even  under 
his  protection.  The  governor  was  in  haste  to  accumu- 
late his  wealth  as  it  was  necessary  that  he  make  his 
fortune  in  one  year.  After  he  returned  to  Rome, 
another  came  who  recommenced  the  whole  process. 
There  was,  indeed,  a  law  that  prohibited  every  gov- 
ernor from  accepting  a  gift,  and  a  tribunal  (since  149) 
expressly  for  the  crime  of  extortion.  But  this  tribunal 
was  composed  of  nobles  and  Roman  knights  who  would 
not  condemn  their  compatriot,  and  the  principal  result 
of  this  system  was,  according  to  the  remark  of  Cicero, 
to  compel  the  governor  to  take  yet  more  plunder  from 
the  province  in  order  to  purchase  the  judges  of  the 
tribunal. 

It  cannot  surprise  one  that  the  term  "proconsul" 
came  to  be  a  synonym  for  despot.  Of  these  brigands 
by  appointment  the  most  notorious  was  Verres,  pro- 
praetor of  Sicily,  since  Cicero  from  political  motives 
pronounced  against  him  seven  orations  which  have 
made  him  famous.  But  it  is  probable  that  many 
others  were  as  bad  as  he. 

The  Publicans. — In  every  province  the  Roman  peo- 
ple had  considerable  revenues — the  customs,  the  mines, 
the  imposts,  the  grain-lands,  and  the  pastures.  These 
were  farmed  out  to  companies  of  contractors  who  were 


THE   CONQUERED   PEOPLES  253 

called  publicans.  These  men  bought  from  the  state 
the  right  of  collecting  the  impost  in  a  certain  place,  and 
the  provincials  had  to  obey  them  as  the  representatives 
of  the  Roman  people.  And  so  in  every  province  there 
were  many  companies  of  publicans,  each  with  a  crowd 
of  clerks  and  collectors.  These  people  carried  them- 
selves as  masters,  extorted  more  than  was  due  them,  re- 
duced the  debtors  to  misery,  sometimes  selling  them  as 
slaves.  In  Asia  they  even  exiled  the  inhabitants  with- 
out any  pretext.  When  JMarius  required  the  king  of 
Bithynia  to  furnish  him  with  soldiers,  the  king  replied 
that,  thanks  to  the  publicans,  he  had  remaining  as 
citizens  only  women,  children,  and  old  people.  The 
Romans  were  well  informed  of  these  excesses.  Cicero 
wrote  to  his  brother,  then  a  governor,  'Tf  you  find  the 
means  of  satisfying  the  publicans  without  letting  the 
provincials  be  destroyed,  it  is  because  you  have  the 
attributes  of  a  god."  But  the  publicans  were  judged 
in  the  tribunals  and  the  proconsuls  themselves  obeyed 
them.  Scaurus,  the  proconsul  of  Asia,  a  man  of  rigid 
probity,^  wished  to  prevent  them  from  pillaging  his 
province ;  on  his  return  to  Rome  they  had  him  accused 
and  condemned. 

The  publicans  drove  to  extremities  even  the  peace- 
able and  submissive  inhabitants  of  the  Orient:  in  a 
single  night,  at  the  order  of  Mithradates,  100,000 
Romans  were  massacred.  A  century  later,  in  the  time 
of  Christ,  the  word  ^'publican"  was  synon3^mous  with 
thief. 

The  Bankers. — The  Romans  had  heaped  up  at  home 

the  silver  of  the  conquered  countries.     And  so  silver 

*  This  estimate  of  the  character  of  Scaurus  is  too  favorable. — Ed. 


254  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

was  very  abundant  in  Rome  and  scarce  in  the  prov- 
inces. At  Rome  one  could  borrow  at  four  or  five  per 
cent. ;  in  the  provinces  not  less  than  twelve  per  cent, 
was  charged.  The  bankers  borrowed  money  in  Rome 
and  loaned  it  in  the  provinces,  especially  to  kings  or 
to  cities.  When  the  exhausted  peoples  could  not  re- 
turn the  principal  and  the  interest,  the  bankers  imitated 
the  procedure  of  the  publicans.  In  84  the  cities  of 
Asia  made  a  loan  to  pay  an  enormous  war-levy ;  four- 
teen years  later,  the  interest  alone  had  made  the  debt 
amount  to  six  times  the  original  amount.  The  bankers 
compelled  the  cities  to  sell  even  their  objects  of  art; 
parents  sold  even  their  children.  Some  years  later 
one  of  the  most  highly  esteemed  Romans  of  his  time, 
Brutus,  the  Stoic,  loaned  to  the  city  of  Salamis  in 
Cyprus  a  sum  of  money  at  forty-eight  per  cent,  interest 
(four  per  cent,  a  month).  Scaptius,  his  business  man- 
ager, demanded  the  sum  with  interest;  the  city  could 
not  pay;  Scaptius  then  went  in  search  of  the  procon- 
sul Appius,  secured  a  squadron  of  cavalry  and  came  to 
Salamis  to  blockade  the  senate  in  its  hall  of  assembly ; 
five  senators  died  of  famine. 

Defencelessness  of  the  Provincials The  provincials 

had  no  redress  against  all  these  tyrants.  The  gov- 
ernor sustained  the  publicans,  and  the  Roman  army 
and  people  sustained  the  governor.  Admit  that  a 
Roman  citizen  could  enter  suit  against  the  plunderers 
of  the  provinces :  a  governor  was  inviolable  and  could 
not  be  accused  until  he  had  given  up  his  office ;  while 
he  held  his  office  there  was  nothing  to  do  but  to  watch 
him  plunder.  If  he  were  accused  on  his  return  to 
Rome,  he  appeared  before  a  tribunal  of  nobles  and  of 


THE    CONQUERED    PEOPLES  255 

publicans  who  were  more  interested  to  support  him 
than  to  render  justice  to  the  provincials.  If,  per- 
chance, the  tribunal  condemned  him,  exile  exempted 
him  from  all  further  penalty  and  he  betook  himself  to 
a  city  of  Italy  to  enjoy  his  plunder.  This  punishment 
was  nothing  to  him  and  was  not  even  a  loss  to  him. 
And  so  the  provincials  preferred  to  appease  their  gov- 
ernor by  submission.  They  treated  him  like  a  king, 
flattered  him,  sent  presents,  and  raised  statues  to  him. 
Often,  indeed,  in  Asia  they  raised  altars  to  him,^  built 
temples  to  him,  and  adored  him  as  a  god. 


SLAVERY 

The  Sale  of  Slaves. — Every  prisoner  of  war,  every 
inhabitant  of  a  captured  city  belonged  to  the  victor. 
If  they  were  not  killed,  they  were  enslaved.  Such  was 
the  ancient  custom  and  the  Romans  exercised  the  right 
to  the  full.  Captives  were  treated  as  a  part  of  the 
booty  and  were  therefore  either  sold  to  slave-merchants 
who  followed  the  army  or,  if  taken  to  Rome,  were  put 
up  at  auction.-  After  every  war  thousands  of  captives, 
men  and  women,  w^ere  sold  as  slaves.  Children  born 
of  slave  mothers  would  themselves  be  slaves.  Thus  it 
was  the  conquered  peoples  who  furnished  the  slave- 
supply  for  the  Romans. 

Condition  of  the  Slave — The  slave  belonged  to  a 

^  Cicero  speaks  of  the  temples  which  were  raised  to  him  by 
the  people  of  Cilicia,  of  which  country  he  was  governor. 

^  Every  important  town  had  its  market  for  slaves  as  for  cattle 
and  horses.  The  slave  to  be  sold  was  exhibited  on  a  platform 
with  a  label  about  his  neck  indicating  his  age,  his  better  qualities 
and  his  defects. 


256  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

master,  and  so  was  regarded  not  as  a  person  but  as  a 
piece  of  property.  He  had,  then,  no  rights ;  he  could 
not  be  a  citizen  or  a  proprietor ;  he  could  be  neither  hus- 
band nor  father.  ''Slave  marriages !"  says  a  character 
in  a  Roman  comedy;^  ''A  slave  takes  a  wife;  it  is  con- 
trary to  the  custom  of  every  people."  The  master  has 
full  right  over  his  slave ;  he  sends  him  where  he  pleases, 
makes  him  work  according  to  his  will,  even  beyond 
his  strength,  ill  feeds  him,  beats  him,  tortures  him, 
kills  him  without  accounting  to  anybody  for  it.  The 
slave  must  submit  to  all  the  whims  of  his  master ;  the 
Romans  declare,  even,  that  he  is  to  have  no  conscience, 
his  only  duty  is  blind  obedience.  If  he  resists,  if  he 
flees,  the  state  assists  the  master  to  subdue  or  recover 
him;  the  man  who  gives  refuge  to  a  fugitive  slave 
renders  himself  liable  to  the  charge  of  theft,  as  if  he 
had  taken  an  ox  or  a  horse  belonging  to  another. 

Number  of  Slaves. — Slaves  were  far  more  numerous 
than  free  men.  Rich  citizens  owned  10,000  to  20,000 
of  them,-  some  having  enough  of  them  to  constitute  a 
real  army.  We  read  of  Csecilius  Claudius  Isidorius 
who  had  once  been  a  slave  and  came  to  possess  more 
than  4,000  slaves.  Horace,  who  had  seven  slaves, 
speaks  of  his  modest  patrimony.  Having  but  three 
was  in  Rome  a  mark  of  poverty. 

Urban  Slaves.— The  Roman  nobles,  like  the  Orien- 
tals of  our  day,  delighted  in  surrounding  themselves 
with  a  crowd  of  servants.  In  a  great  Roman  house 
lived  hundreds  of  slaves,  organized  for  different  ser- 
vices.   There  were  slaves  to  care  for  the  furniture,  for 

1  In  the  Casina  of  Plautus. 

2  Athenaeus,  who  makes  this  statement,  is  probably  guilty  of 
exaggeration. — Ed. 


THE   CONQUERED    PEOPLES  257 

the  silver  plate,  for  the  objects  of  art;  slaves  of  the 
wardrobe,  valets  and  chambermaids,  the  troop  of  cooks, 
the  slaves  of  the  bath,  the  master  of  the  house  and  his 
aids,  the  slaves  to  escort  the  master  and  mistress  on 
the  street,  the  litter-carriers,  coachmen  and  grooms, 
secretaries,  readers,  copyists,  physicians,  teachers, 
actors,  musicians,  artisans  of  every  kind,  for  in  every 
great  house  grain  was  ground,  flax  was  spun,  and  gar- 
ments were  woven.  Others,  gathered  in  workshops, 
manufactured  objects  which  the  master  sold  to  his 
profit.  Others  were  hired  out  as  masons  or  as  sailors ; 
Crassus  had  500  carpenter-slaves.  These  classes  of 
slaves  were  called  "slaves  of  the  city." 

Rural  Slaves. — Every  great  domain  was  tilled  by  a 
band  of  slaves.  They  were  the  laborers,  the  shep- 
herds, the  vine-dressers,  the  gardeners,  the  fishermen, 
grouped  together  in  squads  of  ten.  An  overseer,  him- 
self a  slave,  superintended  them.  The  proprietor 
made  it  a  matter  to  produce  everything  on  his  lands : 
*'He  buys  nothing;  everything  that  he  consumes  he 
raises  at  home,"  this  is  the  compliment  paid  to  the 
rich.  The  Roman,  therefore,  kept  a  great  number  of 
country-slaves,  as  they  were  called.  A  Roman  domain 
had  a  strong  resemblance  to  a  village;  indeed  it  was 
called  a  "villa."  The  name  has  been  preserved :  what 
the  French  call  "ville"  since  the  Middle  Ages  is  only 
the  old  Roman  domain  increased  in  size. 

Treatment  of  Slaves — The  kind  of  treatment  the 
slaves  received  depended  entirely  on  the  character  of 
the  master.  Some  enlightened  and  humane  masters 
may  be  enumerated,  such  as  Cicero,  Seneca,  and  Pliny, 
who  fed  their  slaves  well,  talked  with  them,  sometimes 


258  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

had  them  sit  at  table  with  them,  and  permitted  them  to 
have  famihes  and  small  fortunes  (the  peculium). 

But  other  masters  are  mentioned  who  treated  their 
slaves  as  animals,  punished  them  cruelly,  and  even  had 
them  put  to  death  for  a  whim.  Examples  of  these  are 
not  lacking.  Vedius  Pollio,  a  freedman  of  Augustus, 
used  to  keep  some  lampreys  in  his  fish-pond :  when  one 
of  his  slaves  carelessly  broke  a  vase,  he  had  him  thrown 
into  the  fish-pond  as  food  for  the  lampreys.  The 
philosopher  Seneca  paints  in  the  following  words  the 
violent  cruelty  of  the  masters :  "If  a  slave  coughs  or 
sneezes  during  a  meal,  if  he  pursues  the  flies  too  slowly, 
if  he  lets  a  key  fall  noisily  to  the  floor,  we  fall  into  a 
great  rage.  If  he  replies  w^ith  too  much  spirit,  if  his 
countenance  shows  ill  humor,  have  we  any  right  to 
have  him  flogged  ?  Often  we  strike  too  hard  and  shat- 
ter a  limb  or  break  a  tooth."  The  philosopher  Epic- 
tetus,  who  was  a  slave,  had  had  his  ankle  fractured  in 
this  way  by  his  master.  Women  were  no  more  humane. 
Ovid,  in  a  compliment  paid  to  a  woman,  says,  "Many 
times  she  had  her  hair  dressed  in  my  presence,  but  never 
did  she  thrust  her  needle  into  the  arm  of  the  serving- 
woman." 

Public  opinion  did  not  condemn  these  cruelties. 
Juvenal  represents  a  woman  angry  at  one  of  her 
slaves.  "Crucify  him,"  says  she.  "By  what  crime  has 
the  slave  merited  this  punishment  ?  Blockhead !  Is  a 
slave,  then,  a  man  ?  It  may  be  that  he  has  done  noth- 
ing.    I  wish  it,  I  order  it,  my  will  is  reason  enough." 

The  law- was  no  milder  than  custom.  As  late  as  die 
first  century  after  Christ,  when  a  master  was  assassi- 
nated in  his  house,  all  the  slaves  were  put  to  death. 


THE   CONQUERED    PEOPLES  259 

When  some  wished  to  aooHsh  this  law,  Thraseas,  one 
of  the  philosophers  of  high  repute,  rose  to  address  the 
Senate  to  demand  that  the  law  be  maintained. 

The  Ergastulum. — A  subterranean  prison,  lighted  by 
narrow  windows  so  high  that  they  could  not  be  reached 
by  the  hand,  was  called  the  ergastulum.  The  slaves 
who  had  displeased  their  master  spent  the  night  there ; 
during  the  day  they  were  sent  to  work  loaded  with 
heavy  chains  of  iron.  Many  were  branded  with  a  red- 
hot  iron. 

The  Mill. — The  ancients  had  no  mills  run  by  ma- 
chinery; they  had  the  grain  ground  by  slaves  with 
hand-mills.  It  was  the  most  difficult  kind  of  work 
and  was  usually  inflicted  as  a  punishment.  The  mill 
of  antiquity  was  like  a  convict-prison.  ''There,"  says 
Plautus,  *'moan  the  wicked  slaves  who  are  fed  on 
polenta;  there  resound  the  noise  of  whips  and  the 
clanking  of  chains."  Three  centuries  later,  in  the  sec- 
ond century,  Apuleius  the  novelist,  depicts  the  interior 
of  a  mill  as  follows :  "Gods !  w^hat  poor  shrunken  up 
men !  wnth  white  skin  striped  with  blows  of  the  whip, 
.  .  .  they  wear  only  the  shreds  of  a  tunic;  bent  for- 
ward, head  shaved,  the  feet  held  in  a  chain,  the  body 
deformed  by  the  heat  of  the  fire,  the  eyelids  eaten  away 
by  the  fumes,  everything  covered  with  grain-dust." 

Character  of  the  Slaves — Subjected  to  crushing 
labor  or  to  enforced  idleness,  always  under  the  threat 
of  the  whip  or  of  torture,  slaves  became,  according  to 
their  nature,  either  melancholy  and  savage,  or  lazy  and 
subservient.  The  most  energetic  of  them  committed 
suicide;  the  others  led  a  life  that  was  merely  mechan- 
ical.    "The  slave,"  said  Cato  the  Elder,  "ought  always 


260  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

to  work  or  to  sleep."  The  majority  of  them  lost  all 
sense  of  honor.  And  so  they  used  to  call  a  mean  act 
"servile,"  that  is,  like  a  slave. 

Slave  Revolts — The  slaves  did  not  write  and  so 
we  do  not  know  from  their  own  accounts  what  they 
thought  of  their  masters.  But  the  masters  felt  them- 
selves surrounded  by  hate.  Pliny  the  Younger,  learn- 
ing that  a  master  was  to  be  assassinated  at  the  bath  by 
his  slaves,  made  this  reflection,  "This  is  the  peril  under 
which  we  all  live."  "More  Romans,"  says  another 
writer,  "have  fallen  victims  to  the  hate  of  their  slaves 
than  to  that  of  tyrants." 

At  different  times  slave  revolts  flamed  up  (the  ser- 
vile wars),  almost  always  in  Sicily  and  south  Italy 
where  slaves  were  armed  to  guard  the  herds.  The  most 
noted  of  these  wars  was  the  one  under  Spartacus.  A 
band  of  seventy  gladiators,  escaping  from  Capua,  plun- 
dered a  chariot  loaded  with  arms,  and  set  themselves 
to  hold  the  country.  The  slaves  escaped  to  them  in 
crowds  to  unite  their  fortunes  with  theirs,  and  soon 
they  became  an  army. 

The  slaves  defeated  three  Roman  armies  sent  in 
succession  against  them. 

Their  chief  Spartacus  wished  to  traverse  the  whole 
peninsula  of  Italy  in  order  to  return  to  Thrace,  from 
which  country  he  had  been  brought  as  a  prisoner  of 
war  to  serve  as  a  gladiator.  But  at  last  these  ill-dis- 
ciplined bands  were  shattered  by  the  army  of  Crassus. 
The  revolutionists  were  all  put  to  death.  Rome  now 
prohibited  the  slaves  from  carrying  arms  thereafter, 
and  it  is  reported  that  a  shepherd  was  once  executed 
for  having  killed  a  boar  with  a  spear. 


THE   CONQUERED   PEOPLES  261 

Admission  to  Citizenship — Rome  treated  its  sub- 
jects and  its  slaves  brutally,  but  it  did  not  drive  them 
out,  as  the  Greek  cities  did. 

The  alien  could  become  a  Roman  citizen  by  the  will 
of  the  Roman  people,  and  the  people  often  accorded 
this  favor,  sometimes  they  even  bestowed  it  upon  a 
whole  people  at  once.  They  created  the  Latins  citi- 
zens at  one  stroke ;  in  89  it  was  the  turn  of  the  Italians ; 
in  46  the  people  of  Cisalpine  Gaul  entered  the  body  of 
citizens.  All  the  inhabitants  of  Italy  thus  became  the 
equals  of  the  Romans. 

The  slave  could  be  manumitted  by  his  master  and 
soon  became  a  citizen. 

This  is  the  reason  why  the  Roman  people,  gradually 
exhausting  themselves,  were  renewed  by  accessions 
from  the  subjects  and  the  slaves.  The  number  of  the 
citizens  was  increased  at  every  census;  it  rose  from 
250,000  to  700,000.  The  Roman  city,  far  from  empty- 
ing itself  as  did  Sparta,  replenished  itself  little  by  little 
from  all  those  whom  it  had  conquered. 


I 

t 

CHAPTER   XXII 
TRANSFORMATION  OF  LIFE  IN  ROME 

Greek  and  Oriental  Influence Conquest  gave  the 

Romans  a  clearer  view  of  the  Greeks  and  Orientals. 
Thousands  of  foreigners  brought  to  Rome  as  slaves, 
or  coming  thither  to  make  their  fortune,  established 
themselves  in  the  city  as  physicians,  professors,  divin- 
ers, or  actors.  Generals,  officers  and  soldiers  lived  in 
the  midst  of  Asia,  and  thus  the  Romans  came  to  know 
the  customs  and  the  new  beliefs  and  gradually  adopted 
them.  This  transformation  had  its  beginning  with  the 
first  Macedonian  war  (about  200  B.C.),  and  continued 
until  the  end  of  the  empire. 

CHANGES  IN  RELIGION 

The  Greek  Gods — The  Roman  gods  bore  but  a  slight 
resemblance  to  the  Greek  gods,  even  in  name;  yet  in 
the  majority  of  the  divinities  of  Rome  the  Greeks  rec- 
ognized or  believed  they  recognized  their  own.  The 
Roman  gods  up  to  that  time  had  neither  precise  form 
nor  history;  this  rendered  confusion  all  the  easier. 
Every  Roman  god  was  represented  under  the  form  of 
a  Greek  god  and  a  history  was  made  of  the  adventures 
of  this  god. 

The  Latin  Jupiter  was  confounded  with  the  Greek 
Zeus ;  Juno  with  Hera ;  Minerva,  the  goddess  of  mem- 
ory, with  Pallas,  goddess  of  wisdom;  Diana,  female 

262 


TRANSFORMATION    OF    LIFE    IN    ROME         263" 

counterpart  of  Janus,  unites  with  Artemis,  the  brilliant 
huntress;  Hercules,  the  god  of  the  enclosure,  was  as- 
similated to  Herakles,  the  victor  over  monsters.  Thus 
Greek  mythology  insinuated  itself  under  Latin  names, 
and  the  gods  of  Rome  found  themselves  transformed 
into  Greek  gods.  The  fusion  was  so  complete  that  we 
have  preserved  the  custom  of  designating  the  Greek 
gods  by  their  Latin  names ;  we  still  call  Artemis  Diana, 
and  Pallas  Minerva. 

The  Bacchanals. — The  Greeks  had  adopted  an  orien- 
tal god,  Bacchus,  the  god  of  the  vintage,  and  the  Ro- 
mans began  to  adore  him  also.  The  worshippers  of 
Bacchus  celebrated  his  cult  at  night  and  in  secret. 
Only  the  initiated  were  admitted  to  the  mysteries  of 
the  Bacchanals,  who  swore  not  to  reveal  any  of  the  cer- 
emonies. A  woman,  however,  dared  to  denounce  to 
the  Senate  the  Bacchanalian  ceremonies  that  occurred 
in  Rome  in  i86.  The  Senate  made  an  inquiry,  dis- 
covered 7,000  persons,  men  and  women,  who  had 
participated  in  the  mysteries,  and  had  them  put  to 
death. 

Oriental  Superstitions. — Already  in  220  there  was  in 
Rome  a  temple  of  the  Egyptian  god  Serapis.  The 
Senate  ordered  it  to  be  demolished.  As  no  workman 
dared  to  touch  it,  the  consul  himself  had  to  come  and 
beat  down  the  doors  with  blows  of  an  axe. 

Some  years  after,  in  205,  during  the  war  with  Han- 
nibal, it  was  the  Senate  itself  that  sent  an  ambassador 
to  Asia  Minor  to  seek  the  goddess  Cybele.  The  Great 
Mother  (as  she  w^as  called)  was  represented  by  a 
black  stone,  and  this  the  envoys  of  the  Senate  brought 
in  great  pomp  and  installed  in  Rome.     Her  priests 


264  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

followed  her  and  paced  the  streets  to  the  sound  of 
fifes  and  cymbals,  clad  in  oriental  fashion,  and  begging 
from  door  to  door. 

Later,  Italy  was  filled  with  Chaldean  sorcerers. 
The  mass  of  the  people  were  not  the  only  ones  to  be- 
lieve in  these  diviners.  When  the  Cimbri  menaced 
Rome  (104),  Martha,  a  prophetess  of  Syria,  came  to 
the  Senate  to  offer  it  victory  over  the  barbarians ;  the 
Senate  drove  her  out,  but  the  Roman  women  brought 
her  to  the  camp,  and  Marius,  the  general  in  chief,  kept 
her  by  him  and  consulted  her  to  the  end  of  the  war. 
Sulla,  likewise,  had  seen  in  vision  the  goddess  of  Cap- 
padocia  and  it  was  on  her  advice  that  he  took  his  way 
to  Italy. 

Sceptics. — Not  only  priests  and  diviners  came  to 
Rome,  but  also  philosophers  who  scoffed  at  the  old 
religion.  The  best  known  of  these,  Carneades,  the 
ambassador  of  the  Athenians,  spoke  in  Rome  in  pub- 
lic, and  the  youth  of  Rome  came  in  crowds  to  hear  him. 
The  Senate  bade  him  leave  the  city.  But  the  philos- 
ophers continued  to  teach  in  the  schools  of  Athens  and 
Rhodes,  and  it  was  the  fashion  to  send  the  Roman 
youth  thither  for  instruction.  About  the  third  century 
before  Christ  Euhemerus,  a  Greek,  had  written  a  book 
to  prove  that  there  were  no  gods;  the  gods,  he  said, 
were  only  men  of  ancient  times  who  had  been  deified ; 
Jupiter  himself  had  been  a  king  of  Crete.  This  book 
had  a  great  success  and  was  translated  into  Latin  by 
the  poet  Ennius.  The  nobles  of  Rome  were  accus- 
tomed to  mock  at  their  gods,  maintaining  only  the  cult 
of  the  old  religion.  The  higher  Roman  society  was 
for  a  century  at  once  superstitious  and  sceptical. 


TRANSFORMATION   OF    LIFE    IN   ROME         265 


CHANGES  IN  MANNERS 

The  Old  Customs. — The  old  Romans  had  for  cen- 
turies been  dihgent  and  rude  husbandmen,  engaged 
in  cultivating  their  fields,  in  fighting,  and  in  fulfilling 
the  ceremonies  of  their  religion.  Their  ideal  was  the 
grave  man.  Cincinnatus,  they  said,  was  pushing  his 
plough  when  the  deputies  of  the  Senate  came  to  offer 
him  the  dictatorship.  Fabricius  had  of  plate  only  a 
cup  and  a  salt-cellar  of  silver.  Curius  Dentatus,  the 
conqueror  of  the  Samnites,  was  sitting  on  a  bench  eat- 
ing some  beans  in  a  wooden  bowd  when  the  envoys  of 
the  Samnites  presented  themselves  before  him  to  offer 
him  a  bribe.^  ''Go  and  tell  the  Samnites,"  said  he, 
"that  Curius  prefers  commanding  those  who  have  gold 
to  having  it  himself."  These  are  some  of  the  anec- 
dotes that  they  used  to  tell  about  the  generals  of  the 
olden  time.  True  or  false,  these  legends  exhibit  the 
ideas  that  were  current  in  Rome  at  a  later  time  re- 
garding the  ancient  Romans. 

Cato  the  Elder. — At  the  time  when  manners  were 
changing,  one  man  made  himself  notable  by  his  at- 
tachment to  the  "customs  of  the  fathers."  This  was 
Cato.  He  was  born  in  232^  in  the  little  village  of 
Tusculum  and  had  spent  his  youth  in  manual  labor. 
Entering  the  army,  according  to  the  usage  of  the  time, 
at  the  age  of  seventeen,  he  fought  in  all  the  campaigns 
against  Hannibal.     He  was  not  noble,  but  he  made 

*  Another  version  is  that  he  was  sitting  at  the  hearth  roasting 
turnips. — Ed. 

2  232  and  234  are  both  given  as  the  date  of  Cato's  birth.  The 
latter  is  the  more  probable. — Ed. 


266  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

himself  popular  by  his  energy,  his  probity,  and  his 
austerity.  He  passed  through  the  whole  course  of 
political  honors — quaestor,  gedile,  praetor,  consul,  and 
censor.  He  showed  himself  everywhere,  like  the  old 
Romans,  rude,  stern,  and  honest.  As  quaestor  he  re- 
monstrated with  the  consul  about  his  expenses ;  but  the 
consul,  who  was  Scipio,  replied  to  him,  "I  have  no 
need  of  so  exact  a  quaestor."  As  praetor  in  Sardinia, 
he  refused  the  money  that  was  offered  him  by  the 
province  for  the  expenses  of  entertainment.  As  con- 
sul, he  spoke  with  vigor  for  the  Oppian  law  which 
prohibited  Roman  women  from  wearing  costly  attire; 
the  women  put  it  off,  and  the  law  was  abrogated.  Sent 
to  command  the  army  of  Spain,  Cato  took  400  towns, 
securing  immense  treasure  which  he  turned  into  the 
public  chest ;  at  the  moment  of  embarking,  he  sold  his 
horse  to  save  the  expenses  of  transportation.  As  cen- 
sor, he  erased  from  the  senate-list  many  great  persons 
on  the  ground  of  their  extravagance;  he  farmed  the 
taxes  at  a  very  high  price  and  taxed  at  ten  times  their 
value  the  women's  habits,  jewels,  and  conveyances. 
Having  obtained  the  honor  of  a  triumph,  he  withdrew 
to  the  army  in  Macedonia  as  a  simple  officer. 

All  his  life  he  fought  with  the  nobles  of  the  new  type, 
extravagant  and  elegant.  He  ''barked"  especially  at 
the  Scipios,  accusing  them  of  embezzling  state  moneys. 
In  turn  he  was  forty-four  times  made  defendant  in 
court,  but  was  always  acquitted. 

On  his  farm  Cato  labored  with  his  slaves,  ate  with 
them,  and  when  he  had  to  correct  them,  beat  them  with 
his  own  hand.  In  his  treatise  on  Agriculture,  written 
for  his  son,  he  has  recorded  all  the  old  axioms  of  the 


TRANSFORMATION    OF    LIFE    IN    ROME         267 

Roman  peasantry.^  He  considered  it  to  be  a  duty  to 
become  rich.  *'A  widow,"  he  said,  "can  lessen  her 
property;  a  man  ought  to  increase  his.  He  is  worthy 
of  fame  and  inspired  of  the  gods  who  gains  more  than 
he  inherits."  Finding  that  agriculture  was  not  profit- 
able enough,  he  invested  in  merchant  ships;  he  united 
with  fifty  associates  and  all  together  constructed  fifty 
ships  of  commerce,  that  each  might  have  a  part  in  the 
risks  and  the  profits.  A  good  laborer,  a  good  soldier, 
a  foe  to  luxury,  greedy  of  gain,  Cato  was  the  type  of 
the  Roman  of  the  old  stock. 

The  New  Manners — Many  Romans  on  the  contrary, 
especially  the  nobles,  admired  and  imitated  the  foreign- 
ers. At  their  head  were  the  generals  who  had  had  a 
nearer  view  of  Greece  and  the  Orient — Scipio,  con- 
queror of  the  king  of  Syria,  Flamininus  and  vF^milius 
Paullus,  victors  over  the  kings  of  Macedon,  later  Lu- 
cullus,  conqueror  of  the  king  of  Armenia.  They  were 
disgusted  with  the  mean  and  gross  life  of  their  an- 
cestors, and  adopted  a  more  luxurious  and  agreeable 
mode  of  living.  Little  by  little  all  the  nobles,  all  the 
rich  followed  their  example;  one  hundred  and  fifty 
years  later  in  Italy  all  the  great  were  living  in  Greek 
or  oriental  fashion. 

Oriental  Luxury — In  the  East  the  Romans  found 
models  in  the  royal  successors  of  Alexander,  possessors 
of  enormous  wealth;  for  all  the  treasure  that  was  not 
employed  in  paying  mercenaries  was  squandered  by  the 
court.  These  oriental  kings  indulged  their  vanity  by 
displaying  gleaming  robes,  precious  stones,  furniture 

^  Nearly  all  Romans  of  Cato's  time  were  husbandmen,  tilling 
the  soil  with  their  own  hands. — Ed. 


268  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

of  silver,  golden  plate ;  by  surrounding  themselves  with 
a  multitude  of  useless  servants,  by  casting  money  to  the 
people  who  were  assembled  to  admire  them.^ 

The  Romans,  very  vain  and  with  artistic  tastes  but 
slightly  developed,  had  a  relish  for  this  species  of 
luxury.  They  had  but  little  regard  for  beauty  or  for 
comfort,  and  had  thought  for  nothing  else  than  display. 
They  had  houses  built  with  immense  gardens  adorned 
with  statues,  sumptuous  villas  projecting  into  the  sea 
in  the  midst  of  enormous  gardens.  They  surrounded 
themselves  with  troops  of  slaves.  They  and  their 
wives  substituted  for  linen  garments  those  of  gauze, 
silk,  and  gold.  At  their  banquets  they  spread  em- 
broidered carpets,  purple  coverings,  gold  and  silver 
plate.  Sulla  had  one  hundred  and  fifty  dishes  of  sil- 
ver; the  plate  of  Marcus  Drusus  weighed  10,000 
pounds.  While  the  common  people  continued  to  sit 
at  table  in  accordance  with  old  Italian  custom,  the  rich 
adopted  the  oriental  usage  of  reclining  on  couches  at 
their  meals.  At  the  same  time  was  introduced  the 
affected  and  costly  cookery  of  the  East — exotic  fishes, 
brains  of  peacocks,  and  tongues  of  birds. 

From  the  second  century  the  extravagance  was  such 
that  a  consul  who  died  in  152  could  say  in  his  will: 
"As  true  glory  does  not  consist  in  vain  pomp  but  in  the 
merits  of  the  dead  and  of  one's  ancestors,  I  bid  my 
children  not  to  spend  on  my  funeral  ceremonies  more 
than  a  million  as"  ($10,000). 

Greek  Humanity. — In  Greece  the  Romans  saw  the 
monuments,  the  statues,  and  the  pictures  which  had 

*  This  taste  for  useless  magnificence  is  exhibited  in  the  stories 
cf  the  Thousand  and  One  Nights. 


TRANSFORMATION    OF    LIFE    IN    ROME         269 

crowded  their  cities  for  centuries;  they  came  to  know 
their  learned  people  and  the  philosophers.  Some  of 
the  Romans  acquired  a  taste  for  the  beautiful  and  for 
the  life  of  the  spirit.  The  Scipios  surrounded  them- 
selves with  cultivated  Greeks.  ^Emilius  Paullus  asked 
from  all  the  booty  taken  by  him  from  Macedon  only 
the  library  of  King  Perseus;  he  had  his  children 
taught  by  Greek  preceptors.  It  was  then  the  fashion 
in  Rome  to  speak,  and  even  to  write  in  Greek. ^  The 
nobles  desired  to  appear  connoisseurs  in  painting  and 
in  sculpture;  they  imported  statues  by  the  thousand, 
the  famous  bronzes  of  Corinth,  and  they  heaped  these 
up  in  their  houses.  Thus  Verres  possessed  a  whole 
gallery  of  objects  of  art  which  he  had  stolen  in  Sicily. 
Gradually  the  Romans  assumed  a  gloss  of  Greek  art 
and  literature.  This  new  culture  was  called  "human- 
ity," as  opposed  to  the  "rusticity"  of  the  old  Roman 
peasants. 

It  was  little  else  than  gloss;  the  Romans  had  real- 
ized but  slightly  that  beauty  and  truth  were  to  be 
sought  for  their  own  sakes;  art  and  science  always 
remained  objects  of  luxury  and  parade.  Even  in  the 
time  of  Cicero  the  soldier,  the  peasant,  the  politician, 
the  man  of  affairs,  the  advocate  were  alone  regarded 
as  truly  occupied.  Writing,  composing,  contributing 
to  science,  philosophy,  or  criticism — all  this  was  called 
"being  at  leisure."^  Artists  and  scholars  were  never 
regarded  at  Rome  as  the  equals  of  the  rich  merchant. 

^  Cato  the  Elder  had  a  horror  of  the  Greeks.  He  said  to  his 
son:  "I  will  tell  what  I  have  seen  in  Athens.  This  race  is  the 
most  perverse  and  intractable.  Listen  to  me  as  to  an  oracle: 
whenever  this  people  teaches  us  its  arts  it  will  corrupt  every- 
thing." 

^"Schola,"  from  which  we  derive  "school,"  signified  leisure. 


270  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Lucian,  a  Greek  writer,  said,  "If  you  would  be  a 
Pheidias,  if  you  would  make  a  thousand  masterpieces, 
nobody  will  care  to  imitate  you,  for  as  skilful  as  you 
are,  you  will  always  pass  for  an  artisan,  a  man  who 
lives  by  the  work  of  his  hands." 

LucuUus. — Lucullus,  the  type  of  the  new  Roman, 
was  born  in  145  of  a  noble  and  rich  family;  thus 
he  entered  without  difficulty  into  the  course  of  political 
honors.  From  his  first  campaigns  he  was  notable  for 
his  magnanimity  to  the  vanquished.  Become  consul, 
he  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  army  against  Mithra- 
dates.  He  found  the  inhabitants  of  Asia  exasperated 
by  the  brigandage  and  the  cruelties  of  the  publicans, 
and  gave  himself  to  checking  these  excesses;  he  for- 
bade, too,  his  soldiers  pillaging  conquered  towns.  In 
this  way  he  drew  to  him  the  useless  affection  of  the 
Asiatics  and  the  dangerous  hate  of  the  publicans  and 
the  soldiers.  They  intrigued  to  have  him  recalled ;  he 
had  then  defeated  Mithradates  and  was  pursuing  him 
with  his  ally,  the  king  of  Armenia;  he  came  with  a 
small  army  of  20,000  men  to  put  to  rout  an  immense 
multitude  of  barbarians.  His  command  was  taken 
from  him  and  given  to  Pompey,  the  favorite  of  the 
publicans. 

Lucullus  then  retired  to  enjoy  the  riches  that  he  had 
accumulated  in  Asia.  He  had  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Rome  celebrated  gardens,  at  Naples  a  villa  constructed 
in  part  in  the  sea,  and  at  Tusculum  a  summer  palace 
with  a  whole  museum  of  objects  of  art.  He  spent 
the  beautiful  season  at  Tusculum  surrounded  by  his 
friends,  by  scholars  and  men  of  letters,  reading  Greek 
authors,  and  discussing  literature  and  philosophy. 


TRANSFORMATION    OF    LIFE    IN   ROME        271 

Many  anecdotes  are  told  of  the  luxury  of  Lucullus. 
One  day,  being  alone  at  dinner,  he  found  his  table 
simpler  than  ordinary  and  reproached  the  ^ook,  who 
excused  himself  by  saying  there  was  no  guest  present. 
*'Do  you  not  know,"  replied  his  master,  "that  Lucullus 
dines  today  with  Lucullus?''  Another  day  he  invited 
Caesar  and  Cicero  to  dine,  who  accepted  on  condition 
that  he  would  make  no  change  from  his  ordinary  ar- 
rangements. Lucullus  simply  said  to  a  slave  to  have 
dinner  prepared  in  the  hall  of  Apollo.  A  magnificent 
feast  was  spread,  the  guests  were  astonished.  Lucul- 
lus replied  he  had  given  no  order,  that  the  expense  of 
his  dinners  was  regulated  by  the  hall  where  he  gave 
them ;  those  of  the  hall  of  Apollo  were  to  cost  not  less 
than  $10,000.  A  praetor  who  had  to  present  a  grand 
spectacle  asked  Lucullus  if  he  would  lend  him  one 
hundred  purple  robes;  he  replied  by  tendering  two 
hundred. 

Lucullus  remained  the  representative  of  the  new 
manners,  as  Cato  of  the  old  customs.  For  the  ancients 
Cato  was  the  virtuous  Roman,  Lucullus  the  degenerate 
Roman.  Lucullus,  in  effect,  discarded  the  manners  of 
his  ancestors,  and  so  acquired  a  broader,  more  elevated, 
and  more  refined  spirit,  more  humanity  toward  his 
slaves  and  his  subjects. 

The  New  Education — At  the  time  when  Polybius 
lived  in  Rome  (before  150)  the  old  Romans  taught 
their  children  nothing  else  than  to  read.^  The  new 
Romans  provided  Greek  instructors  for  their  children. 
Some  Greeks  opened  in  Rome  schools  of  poesy,  rheto- 
ric, and  music.  The  great  families  took  sides  be- 
*  Also  to  write  and  reckon,  as  previously  stated. — Ed. 


272  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

tween  the  old  and  new  systems.  But  there  always 
remained  a  prejudice  against  music  and  the  dance; 
they  were^regarded  as  arts  belonging  to  the  stage,  im- 
proper for  a  man  of  good  birth.  Scipio  ^milianus, 
the  protector  of  the  Greeks,  speaks  with  indignation  of 
a  dancing-school  to  which  children  and  young  girls  of 
free  birth  resorted :  "When  it  was  told  me,  I  could  not 
conceive  that  nobles  would  teach  such  things  to  their 
children.  But  when  some  one  took  me  to  the  dancing- 
school,  I  saw  there  more  than  500  boys  and  girls  and, 
among  the  number  a  twelve-year-old  child,  a  candi- 
date's son,  who  danced  to  the  sound  of  castanets."  Sal- 
lust,  speaking  of  a  Roman  woman  of  little  reputation, 
says,  "She  played  on  the  lyre  and  danced  better  than 
is  proper  for  an  honest  woman." 

The  New  Status  of  Women — The  Roman  women 
gave  themselves  with  energy  to  the  religions  and  the 
luxury  of  the  East.  They  flocked  in  crowds  to  the 
Bacchanals  and  the  mysteries  of  Isis.  Sumptuary  laws 
were  made  against  their  fine  garments,  their  litters, 
and  their  jewels,  but  these  laws  had  to  be  abrogated 
and  the  women  allowed  to  follow  the  example  of  the 
men.  Noble  women  ceased  to  walk  or  to  remain  in 
their  homes;  they  set  out  with  great  equipages,  fre- 
quented the  theatre,  the  circus,  the  baths,  and  the  places 
of  assembly.  Idle  and  exceedingly  ignorant,  they 
quickly  became  corrupt.  In  the  nobility,  women  of  fine 
character  became  the  exception.  The  old  discipline  of 
the  family  fell  to  the  ground.  The  Roman  law  made 
the  husband  the  master  of  his  wife ;  but  a  new  form  of 
marriage  was  invented  which  left  the  woman  under  the 
authority  of  her  father  and  gave  no  power  to  her  hus- 


TRANSFORMATION   OF    LIFE   IN   ROME        273 

band.  To  make  their  daughter  still  more  independent, 
her  parents  gave  her  a  dower. 

Divorce — Sometimes  the  husband  alone  had  the 
right  to  repudiate  his  wife,  but  the  custom  was  that  this 
right  should  be  exercised  only  in  the  gravest  circum- 
stances. The  woman  gained  the  right  of  leaving  her 
husband,  and  so  it  became  very  easy  to  break  a  mar- 
riage. There  was  no  need  of  a  judgment,  or  even 
of  a  motive.  It  was  enough  for  the  discontented  hus- 
band or  wife  to  say  to  the  other,  *'Take  what  belongs  to 
you,  and  return  what  is  mine."  After  the  divorce 
either  could  marry  again. 

In  the  aristocracy,  marriage  came  to  be  regarded  as 
a  passing  union;  Sulla  had  five  wives,  Caesar  four, 
Pompey  five,  and  Antony  four.  The  daughter  of 
Cicero  had  three  husbands.  Hortensius  divorced  his 
wife  to  give  her  to  a  friend.  'There  are  noble 
women,"  says  Seneca,  'Svho  count  their  age  not  by  the 
years  of  the  consuls,  but  by  the  husbands  they  have 
had ;  they  divorce  to  marry  again,  they  marry  to  divorce 
again." 

But  this  corruption  affected  hardly  more  than  the 
nobles  of  Rome  and  the  upstarts.  In  the  families  of 
Italy  and  the  provinces  the  more  serious  manners  of 
the  old  time  still  prevailed;  but  the  discipline  of  the 
family  gradually  slackened  and  the  woman  slowly  freed 
herself  from  the  despotism  of  her  husband. 


CHAPTER   XXIII 
.     FALL  OF  THE  REPUBLIC 

DECADENCE  OF  REPUBLICAN  INSTI- 
TUTIONS 

Destruction  of  the  Peasantry.—The  old  Roman  peo- 
ple consisted  of  small  proprietors  who  cultivated  their 
own  land.  These  honest  and  robust  peasants  consti- 
tuted at  once  the  army  and  the  assembly  of  the  people. 
Though  still  numerous  in  221  and  during  the  Second 
Punic  War,  in  133  there  were  no  more  of  them.  Many 
without  doubt  had  perished  in  the  foreign  wars ;  but  the 
special  reason  for  their  disappearance  was  that  it  had 
become  impossible  for  them  to  subsist. 

The  peasants  lived  by  the  culture  of  grain.  When 
Rome  received  the  grain  of  Sicily  and  Africa,  the 
grain  of  Italy  fell  to  so  low  a  price  that  laborers  could 
not  raise  enough  to  support  their  families  and  pay  the 
military  tax.  They  were  compelled  to  sell  their  land 
and  this  was  bought  by  a  rich  neighbor.  Of  many 
small  fields  he  made  a  great  domain ;  he  laid  the  land 
down  to  grazing,  and  to  protect  his  herds  or  to  cul- 
tivate it  he  sent  shepherds  and  slave  laborers.  On  the 
soil  of  Italy  at  that  time  there  were  only  great  pro- 
prietors and  troops  of  slaves.  "Great  domains,"  said 
Pliny  the  Elder,  ''are  the  ruin  of  Italy." 

It  was,  in  fact,  the  great  domains  that  drove  the  free 
274 


FALL   OF   THE    REPUBLIC  275 

peasants  from  the  country  districts.  The  old  pro- 
prietor who  sold  his  land  could  no  longer  remain  a 
farmer;  he  had  to  yield  the  place  to  slaves,  and  he 
himself  wandered  forth  without  work.  *'The  major- 
ity of  these  heads  of  families,"  says  Varro  in  his  treatise 
on  agriculture,  ''have  slipped  within  our  walls,  leaving 
the  scythe  and  the  plough;  they  prefer  clapping  their 
hands  at  the  circus  to  working  in  their  fields  and  their 
vineyards."  Tiberius  Gracchus,  a  tribune  of  the  plebs, 
exclaimed  in  a  moment  of  indignation,  'The  wild 
beasts  of  Italy  have  at  least  their  lairs,  but  the  men  who 
offer  their  blood  for  Italy  have  only  the  light  and  the 
air  that  they  breathe ;  they  wander  about  without  shel- 
ter, without  a  dwelling,  with  their  wives  and  their 
children.  Those  generals  do  but  mock  them  who 
exhort  them  to  fight  for  their  tombs  and  their  temples. 
Is  there  one  of  them  who  still  possesses  the  sacred  altar 
of  his  house  and  the  tomb  of  his  ancestors  ?  They  are 
called  the  masters  of  the  world  while  they  have  not 
for  themselves  a  single  foot  of  earth." 

The  City  Plebs — While  the  farms  were  being 
drained,  the  city  of  Rome  was  being  filled  with  a  new 
population.  They  were  the  descendants  of  the  ruined 
peasants  whom  misery  had  driven  to  the  city;  besides 
these,  there  were  the  freedmen  and  their  children. 
They  came  from  all  the  corners  of  the  world — Greeks, 
Syrians,  Egyptians,  Asiatics,  Africans,  Spaniards, 
Gauls — torn  from  their  homes,  and  sold  as  slaves ;  later 
freed  by  their  masters  and  made  citizens,  they  massed 
themselves  in  the  city.  It  was  an  entirely  new  people 
that  bore  the  name  Roman.  One  day  Scipio,  the  con- 
queror of  Carthage  and  of  Numantia,  haranguing  the 


276  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

people  in  the  forum,  was  interrupted  by  the  cries  of 
the  mob.  "Silence!  false  sons  of  Italy,"  he  cried;  "do 
as  you  like;  those  whom  I  brought  to  Rome  in  chains 
will  never  frighten  me  even  if  they  are  no  longer 
slaves."  The  populace  preserved  quiet,  but  these 
"false  sons  of  Italy,"  the  sons  of  the  vanquished,  had 
already  taken  the  place  of  the  old  Romans. 

This  new  plebeian  order  could  not  make  a  livelihood 
for  itself,  and  so  the  state  had  to  provide  food  for  it. 
A  beginning  was  made  in  123  with  furnishing  corn  at 
half  price  to  all  citizens,  and  this  grain  was  imported 
from  Sicily  and  Africa.  Since  the  year  63^  corn  was 
distributed  gratuitously  and  oil  was  also  provided. 
There  were  registers  and  an  administration  expressly 
for  these  distributions,  a  special  service  for  furnishing 
provisions  (the  Annona).  In  46  Caesar  found  320,- 
000  citizens  enrolled  for  these  distributions. 

Electoral  Corruption — This  miserable  and  lazy  pop- 
ulace filled  the  forum  on  election  days  and  made  the 
laws  and  the  magistrates.  The  candidates  sought  to 
win  its  favors  by  giving  shows  and  public  feasts,  and 
by  dispensing  provisions.  They  even  bought  votes. 
This  sale  took  place  on  a  large  scale  and  in  broad  day ; 
money  was  given  to  distributers  who  divided  it  among 
the  voters.  Once  the  Senate  endeavored  to  stop  this 
trade;  but  when  Piso,  the  consul,  proposed  a  law  to 
prohibit  the  sale  of  suffrages,  the  distributers  excited 
a  riot  and  drove  the  consul  from  the  forum.  In  the 
time  of  Cicero  no  magistrate  could  be  elected  without 
enormous  expenditures. 

*  The  Lex  Clodia  of  58  B.C.  made  these  distributions  legal. 
—Ed. 


FALL  OF  THE   REPUBLIC  277 

Corruption  of  the  Senate. — Poverty  corrupted  the 
populace  who  formed  the  assembhes;  hixury  tainted 
the  men  of  the  old  families  who  composed  the  Senate. 
The  nobles  regarded  the  state  as  their  property  and  so 
divided  among  themselves  the  functions  of  the  state 
and  intrigued  to  exclude  the  rest  of  the  citizens  from 
them.  When  Cicero  was  elected  magistrate,  he  was 
for  thirty  years  the  first  "new  man"  to  enter  the  suc- 
cession of  offices. 

Accustomed  to  exercise  powder,  some  of  the  senato'rs 
believed  themselves  to  be  above  the  law.  When  Scipio 
was  accused  of  embezzlement,  he  refused  even  to  ex- 
onerate himself  and  said  at  the  tribune,  ''Romans,  it 
was  on  this  day  that  I  conquered  Hannibal  and  the 
Carthaginians.  Follow  me  to  the  Capitol  to  render 
thanks  to  the  gods  and  to  beseech  them  always  to  pro- 
vide generals  like  myself." 

To  support  their  pretensions  at  home,  the  majority 
of  the  nobles  required  a  large  amount  of  money.  Many 
used  their  power  to  get  it  for  themselves :  some  sent 
as  governors  plundered  the  subjects  of  Rome;  others 
compelled  foreign  or  hostile  kings  to  pay  for  the  peace 
granted  them,  or  even  for  letting  their  army  be  beaten. 
It  was  in  this  way  that  Jugurtha  bribed  a  Roman  gen- 
eral. Cited  to  Rome  to  answer  for  a  murder,  he  es- 
caped trial  by  buying  up  a  tribune  who  forbade  him  to 
speak.  It  was  related  that  in  leaving  Rome  he  had 
said,  "O  city  for  sale,  if  thou  only  couldst  find  a  pur- 
chaser !" 

Corruption  of  the  Army. — The  Roman  army  was 
composed  of  small  proprietors  who,  when  a  war  was 
finished,  returned  to  the  cultivation  of  their  fields.     In 


278  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

becoming  soldiers  they  remained  citizens  and  fought 
only  for  their  country.  Marius  began  to  admit  to  the 
legions  poor  citizens  who  enrolled  themselves  for  the 
purpose  of  making  capital  from  their  campaigns.  Soon 
the  whole  army  was  full  of  adventurers  who  went  to 
war,  not  to  perform  their  service,  but  to  enrich  them- 
selves from  the  vanquished.  One  was  no  longer  a  sol- 
dier from  a  sense  of  duty,  but  as  a  profession. 

The  soldiers  enrolled  themselves  for  twenty  years; 
their  time  completed,  they  reengaged  themselves  at 
higher  pay  and  became  veterans.  These  people  knew 
neither  the  Senate  nor  the  laws;  their  obedience  was 
only  to  their  general.  To  attach  them  to  himself,  the 
general  distributed  to  them  the  money  taken  from  the 
vanquished.  During  the  w^ar  against  Mithradates 
Sulla  lodged  his  men  with  the  rich  inhabitants  of  Asia ; 
they  lived  as  they  chose,  they  and  their  friends,  re- 
ceiving each  sixteen  drachmas  a  day.  These  first  gen- 
erals, Marius  and  Sulla,  were  still  Roman  magistrates. 
But  soon  rich  individuals  like  Pompey  and  Crassus 
drew  the  soldiers  to  their  pay.  In  78  at  the  death  of 
Sulla  there  were  four  armies,  levied  entirely  and  com- 
manded by  simple  citizens.  From  that  time  there  was 
no  further  question  of  the  legions  of  Rome,  there  were 
left  only  the  legions  of  Pompey  or  Caesar. 

THE  REVOLUTION 

Necessity  of  the  Revolution The  Roman  people 

was  no  longer  anything  but  an  indigent  and  lazy  multi- 
tude, the  army  only  an  aggregation  of  adventurers. 
Neither  the  assembly  nor  the  legions  obeyed  the  Senate, 


FALL   OF   THE    REPUBLIC  279 

for  the  corrupt  nobles  had  lost  all  moral  authority,  so 
that  there  was  left  but  one  real  power — the  army ;  there 
were  no  men  of  influence  beside  the  generals,  and 
the  generals  had  no  longer  any  desire  to  obey.  The 
government  by  the  Senate,  now  no  longer  practicable, 
gave  place  to  the  government  of  the  general. 

The  Civil  Wars. — The  revolution  was  inevitable,  but 
it  did  not  come  at  one  stroke ;  it  required  more  than  a 
hundred  years  to  accomplish  it.  The  Senate  resisted, 
but  too  weak  itself  to  govern,  it  was  strong  enough  to 
prevent  domination  by  another  power.  The  generals 
fought  among  themselves  to  see  who  should  remain 
master.  For  a  century  the  Romans  and  their  subjects 
lived  in  the  midst  of  riot  and  civil  war. 

The  Gracchi. — The  first  civil  discord  that  blazed  up 
in  Rome  was  the  contest  of  the  Gracchi  against  the 
Senate.  The  two  brothers,  Tiberius  and  Gains  Grac- 
chus, were  of  one  of  the  noblest  families  of  Rome,  but 
both  endeavored  to  take  the  government  from  the 
nobles  who  formed  the  Senate  by  making  themselves 
tribunes  of  the  plebs.  There  was  at  that  time,  either 
in  Rome  or  in  Italy,  a  crowd  of  citizens  without  means 
who  desired  a  revolution;  even  among  the  rich  the 
majority  were  of  the  class  of  the  knights,  who  com- 
plained that  they  had  no  part  in  the  government.  Tibe- 
rius Gracchus  had  himself  named  tribune  of  the  plebs 
and  sought  to  gain  control  of  the  government.  He 
proposed  to  the  people  an  agrarian  law.  All  the 
lands  of  the  public  domain  occupied  by  individuals 
were  to  be  resumed  by  the  state  (with  the  exception  of 
500  acres  for  each  one)  ;  these  lands  taken  by  the  state 
were  to  be  distributed  in  small  lots  to  poor  citizens. 


280  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

The  law  was  voted.  It  caused  general  confusion  re- 
garding property,  for  almost  all  of  the  lands  of  the 
empire  constituted  a  part  of  the  public  domain,  but  they 
had  been  occupied  for  a  long  time  and  the  possessors 
were  accustomed  to  regard  themselves  as  proprietors. 
Further,  as  the  Romans  had  no  registry  of  the  lands, 
it  was  often  very  difficult  to  ascertain  whether  a  domain 
were  private  or  public  property.  To  direct  these  op- 
erations, Tiberius  had  three  commissioners  named  on 
whom  the  people  conferred  absolute  authority;  they 
were  Tiberius,  his  brother,  and  his  father-in-law,  and 
it  was  uncertain  whether  Tiberius  had  acted  in  the 
interest  of  the  people,  or  simply  to  have  a  pretext 
for  having  power  placed  in  his  hands.  For  a  year 
he  was  master  of  Rome;  but  when  he  wished  to  be 
elected  tribune  of  the  plebs  for  the  succeeding  year, 
his  enemies  protested,  as  this  was  contrary  to  custom. 
A  riot  followed.  Tiberius  and  his  friends  seized  the 
Capitol;  the  partisans  of  the  Senate  and  their  slaves, 
armed  with  clubs  and  fragments  of  benches,  pursued 
them  and  despatched  them  (133). 

Ten  years  later  Gains,  the  younger  of  the  Gracchi, 
elected  tribune  of  the  plebs  (123),  had  the  agrarian 
law  voted  anew,  and  established  distributions^  of  corn 
to  the  poor  citizens.  Then,  to  destroy  the  power  of 
the  nobles,  he  secured  a  decree  that  the  judges  should 
be  taken  from  among  the  knights.  For  two  years 
Gains  dominated  the  government,  but  while  he  was 
absent  from  the  city  conducting  a  colony  of  Roman 
citizens  to  Carthage  the  people  abandoned  him.  On 
his  return  he  could  not  be  reelected.  The  consul  armed 
^  At  a  very  low  price. — Ed. 


FALL   OF   THE    REPUBLIC  281 

the  partisans  of  the  Senate  and  marched  against  Gains 
and  his  friends  who  had  fled  to  the  Aventine  Hill. 
Gains  had  himself  killed  by  a  slave ;  his  followers  were 
massacred  or  executed  in  prison;  their  houses  were 
razed  and  their  property  confiscated. 

Marius  and  Sulla. — The  contests  of  the  Gracchi  and 
the  Senate  had  been  no  more  than  riots  in  the  streets 
of  Rome,  terminating  in  a  combat  between  bands 
hastily  armed.  The  strife  that  followed  was  a  suc- 
cession of  real  wars  between  regular  armies,  wars  in 
Italy,  wars  in  all  the  provinces.  From  this  time  the 
party  chiefs  were  no  other  than  the  generals. 

The  first  to  use  his  army  to  secure  obedience  in 
Rome  was  Marius.  He  was  born  in  Arpinum,  a  little 
town  in  the  mountains,  and  was  not  of  noble  descent. 
He  had  attained  reputation  as  an  officer  in  the  army, 
and  had  been  elected  tribune  of  the  plebs,  then  prsetor, 
with  the  help  of  the  nobles.  He  turned  against  them 
and  was  elected  consul  and  commissioned  with  the 
war  against  Jugurtha,  king  of  Numidia,  who  had  al- 
ready fought  several  Roman  armies.  It  was  then  that 
Marius  enrolled  poor  citizens  for  whom  military  ser- 
vice became  a  profession.  With  his  army  Marius  con- 
quered Jugurtha  and  the  barbarians,  the  Cimbri  and 
Teutones,  who  had  invaded  the  empire.  He  then  re- 
turned to  Rome  where  he  had  himself  elected  con- 
sul for  the  sixth  time  and  now  exercised  absolute 
power.  Two  parties  now  took  form  in  Rome  who 
called  themselves  the  party  of  the  people  (the  party 
of  Marius),  and  the  party  of  the  nobles  (that  of  the 
Senate). 

The  partisans  of  Marius  committed  so  many  acts  of 


282  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

violence  that  they  ended  by  making  him  unpopular. 
Sulla,  a  noble,  of  the  great  family  of  the  Cornelii, 
profited  by  this  circumstance  to  dispute  the  power  of 
Marius ;  Sulla  was  also  a  general.  When  the  Italians 
rose  against  Rome  to  secure  the  right  of  citizenship 
and  levied  great  armies  which  marched  almost  to  the 
gates  of  the  city,  it  was  Sulla  who  saved  Rome  by  fight- 
ing the  Italians. 

He  became  consul  and  was  charged  with  the  war 
against  Mithradates,  king  of  Pontus,  who  had  invaded 
Asia  Minor  and  massacred  all  the  Romans  (88). 
Marius  in  jealousy  excited  a  riot  in  the  city;  Sulla 
departed,  joined  his  army  which  awaited  him  in  south 
Italy,  then  returned  to  Rome.  Roman  religion  prohib- 
ited soldiers  entering  the  city  under  arms;  the  consul 
even  before  passing  the  gates  had  to  lay  aside  his  man- 
tle of  war  and  assume  the  toga.  Sulla  was  the  first 
general  who  dared  to  violate  this  restriction.  Marius 
took  flight. 

But  when  Sulla  had  left  for  Asia,  Marius  came  with 
an  army  of  adventurers  and  entered  Rome  by  force 
(87).     Then  commenced  the  proscriptions. 

The  principal  partisans  of  Sulla  were  outlawed,  and 
command  was  given  to  kill  them  anywhere  they  were 
met  and  to  confiscate  their  goods.  Marius  died  some 
months  later;  but  his  principal  partisan,  Cinna,  con- 
tinued to  govern  Rome  and  to  put  to  death  whomever 
he  pleased. 

During  this  time  Sulla  had  conquered  Mithradates 
and  had  assured  the  loyalty  of  his  soldiers  by  giving 
them  the  free  pillage  of  Asia.  He  returned  with  his 
army  (83)  to  Italy.     His  enemies  opposed  him  with 


FALL   OF   THE    REPUBLIC  283 

five  armies,  but  these  were  defeated  or  they  deserted. 
Sulla  entered  Rome,  massacred  his  prisoners  and  over- 
threw the  partisans  of  Marius.  After  some  days  of 
slaughter  he  set  himself  to  proceed  regularly :  he  posted 
three  lists  of  those  whom  he  wished  killed.  *'I  have 
posted  now  all  those  whom  I  can  recall;  I  have  for- 
gotten many,  but  their  names  will  be  posted  as  the 
names  occur  to  me."  Every  proscribed  man — that  is 
to  say,  every  man  whose  name  was  on  the  list,  was 
marked  for  death ;  the  murderer  who  brought  his  head 
was  rewarded.  The  property  of  the  proscribed  was 
confiscated.  Proscription  was  not  the  result  of  any 
trial  but  of  the  caprice  of  the  general,  and  that  too 
without  any  warning.  Sulla  thus  massacred  not  only 
his  enemies  but  the  rich  whose  property  he  coveted. 
It  is  related  that  a  citizen  who  was  unaccustomed  to 
politics  glanced  in  passing  at  the  list  of  proscriptions 
and  saw  his  own  name  inscribed  at  the  top  of  the  list. 
"Alas!"  he  cried,  "my  Alban  house  has  been  the  death 
of  me!"  Sulla  is  said  to  have  proscribed  1800^ 
knights. 

After  having  removed  his  enemies,  he  endeavored 
to  organize  a  government  in  which  all  power  should  be 
in  the  hands  of  the  Senate.  He  had  himself  named 
Dictator,  an  old  title  once  given  to  generals  in  moments 
of  danger  and  which  conferred  absolute  power.  Sulla 
used  the  office  to  make  laws  which  changed  the  entire 
constitution.  From  that  time  all  the  judges  were  to 
be  taken  from  the  Senate,  no  law  could  be  discussed 
before  it  had  been  accepted  by  the  Senate,  the  right  of 

*  1600,  according  to  Mommsen,  "History  of  Rome,"  Bk.  IV, 
ch.  X. — Ed. 


284  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

proposing  laws  was  taken  from  the  tribunes  of  the 
plebs. 

After  these  reforms  Sulla  abdicated  his  functions 
and  retired  to  private  life  (79) .  He  knew  he  had  noth- 
ing to  fear,  for  he  had  established  100,000  of  his  sol- 
diers in  Italy. 

Pompey  and  Caesar. — The  Senate  had  recovered  its 
power  because  Sulla  saw  fit  to  give  it  this,  but  it  had 
not  the  strength  to  retain  it  if  a  general  wished  again 
to  seize  it.  The  government  of  the  Senate  endured, 
however,  in  appearance  for  more  than  thirty  years; 
this  was  because  there  were  several  generals  and  each 
prevented  a  rival  from  gaining  all  power. 

At  the  death  of  Sulla  four  armies  took  the  field :  two 
obeyed  the  generals  who  were  partisans  of  the  Senate, 
Crassus  and  Pompey ;  two  followed  generals  who  were 
adversaries  of  the  Senate,  Lepidus  in  Italy,  and  Serto- 
rius  in  Spain.  It  is  very  remarkable  that  no  one  of 
these  armies  was  regular,  no  one  of  the  generals  was  a 
magistrate  and  therefore  had  the  right  to  command 
troops ;  down  to  this  time  the  generals  had  been  consuls, 
but  now  they  were  individuals — private  persons;  their 
soldiers  came  to  them  not  to  serve  the  interests  of  the 
state,  but  to  profit  at  the  expense  of  the  inhabitants. 

The  armies  of  the  enemies  of  the  Senate  were  de- 
stroyed, and  Crassus  and  Pompey,  left  alone,  joined 
issues  to  control  affairs.  They  had  themselves  elected 
consuls  and  Pompey  received  the  conduct  of  two  wars. 
He  went  to  Asia  with  a  devoted  army  and  was  for 
several  years  the  master  of  Rome ;  but  as  he  was  more 
the  possessor  of  ofBces  than  of  power,  he  changed 
nothing  in  the  government.     It  was  during  this  time 


FALL    OF    THE    REPUBLIC  285 

that  Caesar,  a  young  noble,  made  himself  popular. 
Pompey,  Crassus,  and  Caesar  united  to  divide  the 
power  between  themselves.  Crassus  received  the  com- 
mand of  the  army  sent  to  Asia  against  the  Parthians 
and  was  killed  (53).  Pompey  remained  at  Rome. 
Caesar  went  to  Gaul  where  he  stayed  eight  years  sub- 
jecting the  country  and  making  an  army  for  himself. 

Pompey  and  Caesar  were  now  the  only  persons  on 
the  stage.  Each  wished  to  be  master.  Pompey  had 
the  advantage  of  being  at  Rome  and  of  dominating  the 
Senate;  Caesar  had  on  his  side  his  army,  disciplined 
by  eight  years  of  expeditions.  Pompey  secured  a 
decree  of  the  Senate  that  Caesar  should  abandon  his 
army  and  return  to  Rome.  Caesar  decided  then  to 
cross  the  boundary  of  his  province  (the  river  Rubicon), 
and  to  march  on  Rome.  Pompey  had  no  army  in  Italy 
to  defend  himself,  and  so  with  the  majority  of  the  sen- 
ators took  flight  to  the  other  side  of  the  Adriatic.  He 
had  several  armies  in  Spain,  in  Greece,  and  in  Africa. 
Caesar  defeated  them,  one  after  another — that  of  Spain 
first  (49),  then  that  of  Greece  at  Pharsalus  (48),  at 
last,  that  of  Africa  (46).  Pompey,  vanquished  at 
Pharsalus,  fled  to  Egypt  where  the  king  had  him 
assassinated. 

On  his  return  to  Rome  Caesar  was  appointed  dictator 
for  ten  years  and  exercised  absolute  powxr.  The  Sen- 
ate paid  him  divine  honors,  and  it  is  possible  that 
Caesar  desired  the  title  of  king.  He  was  assassinated 
by  certain  of  his  favorites  who  aimed  to  reestablish 
the  sovereignty  of  the  Senate  (44). 

End  of  the  Republic. — The  people  of  Rome,  who 
loved  Caesar,  compelled  Brutus  and  Cassius,  the  chiefs 


286  ANCIENT    CIVILIZATION 

of  the  assassins,  to  flee.  They  withdrew  to  the  East 
where  they  raised  a  large  army.  The  West  remained 
in  the  hand  of  Antony,  who  with  the  support  of  the 
army  of  Caesar,  governed  Rome  despotically. 

Caesar  in  his  will  had  adopted  a  young  man  o£ 
eighteen  years,  his  sister's  son,^  Octavian,  who  ac- 
cording to  Roman  usage  assumed  the  name  of  his 
adoptive  father  and  called  himself  from  that  time 
Julius  Caesar  Octavianus.  Octavian  rallied  to  his  side 
the  soldiers  of  Caesar  and  was  charged  by  the  Senate 
with  the  war  against  Antony.  But  after  conquering 
him  he  preferred  to  unite  with  him  for  a  division  of 
power;  they  associated  Lepidus  with  them,  and  all 
three  returned  to  Rome  where  they  secured  absolute 
power  for  five  years  under  the  title  of  triumvirs  for 
organizing  public  affairs.  They  began  by  proscribing 
their  adversaries  and  their  personal  enemies.  Antony 
secured  the  death  of  Cicero  (43).  Then  they  left  for 
the  East  to  destroy  the  army  of  the  conspirators.  Af- 
ter they  had  divided  the  empire  among  themselves  it 
was  impossible  to  preserve  harmony  and  war  was  un- 
dertaken in  Italy.  It  was  the  soldiers  who  compelled 
them  to  make  terms  of  peace.  A  new  partition  was 
made;  Antony  took  the  East  and  Octavian  the  West 
(39).  For  some  years  peace  was  preserved;  Antony 
resigned  himself  to  the  life  of  an  oriental  sovereign  in 
company  with  Cleopatra,  queen  of  Egypt;  Octavian 
found  it  necessary  to  fight  a  campaign  against  the  sons 
of  Pompey.  The  two  leaders  came  at  last  to  an  open 
breach,  and  then  flamed  up  the  last  of  the  civil  wars. 
This  was  a  war  between  the  East  and  West.  It  was 
*  Grandson. — Ed. 


FALL   OF    THE   REPUBLIC  287 

decided  by  the  naval  battle  of  Actium ;  Antony,  aban- 
doned by  the  fleet  of  Cleopatra,  fled  to  Egypt  and  took 
his  own  life.  Octavian,  left  alone,  was  absolute  mas- 
ter of  the  empire.  The  government  of  the  Senate  was 
at  an  end. 

Need  of  Peace — Everybody  had  suffered  by  these 
wars.  The  inhabitants  of  the  provinces  were  plun- 
dered, harassed,  and  massacred  by  the  soldiers;  each 
of  the  hostile  generals  forced  them  to  take  sides  with 
him,  and  the  victor  punished  them  for  supporting  the 
vanquished.  To  reward  the  old  soldiers  the  generals 
promised  them  lands,  and  then  expelled  all  the  inhab- 
itants of  a  city  to  make  room  for  the  veterans. 

Rich  Romans  risked  their  property  and  their  life ; 
when  their  party  was  overthrown,  they  found  them- 
selves at  the  mercy  of  the  victor.  Sulla  had  set  the 
example  for  organized  massacres  (8i).  Forty  years 
later  (in  43)  Octavian  and  Antony  again  drew  up 
lists  of  proscription. 

The  populace  suffered.  The  grain  on  which  they 
lived  came  no  longer  to  Rome  with  the  former  reg- 
ularity, being  intercepted  either  by  pirates  or  by  the 
fleet  of  an  enemy. 

After  a  century  of  this  regime  all  the  Romans  and 
provincials,  rich  and  poor,  had  but  one  desire — peace. 

The  Power  of  the  Individual It  was  then  that  the 

heir  of  Caesar,  his  nephew^  Octavian,  one  of  the  tri- 
umvirs, after  having  conquered  his  two  colleagues  pre- 
sented himself  to  the  people  now  wearied  with  civil 
discord.  *'He  drew  to  himself  all  the  powers  of  the 
people,  of  the  Senate,  and  of  the  magistrates;"  for 
*  Grand-nephew. — Ed, 


288  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

twelve  years  he  was  emperor  without  having  the  title. 
No  one  dreamed  of  resisting  him;  he  had  closed  the 
temple  of  Janus  and  given  peace  to  the  world,  and  this 
was  what  everybody  wished.  The  government  of  the 
republic  by  the  Senate  represented  only  pillage  and 
civil  war.  A  master  was  needed  strong  enough  to  stop 
the  wars  and  revolutions,  llius  the  Roman  empire 
was  founded. 


CHAPTER    XXIV 
THE    EMPIRE    AT   ITS    HEIGHT 

THE  TWELVE  C^SARS 

The  Emperor. — In  the  new  regime  absolute  author- 
ity was  lodged  in  a  single  man ;  he  was  called  the 
emperor  (imperator — the  commander).  In  himself 
alone  he  exercised  all  those  functions  which  the  an- 
cient magistrates  distributed  among  themselves :  he 
presided  over  the  Senate ;  he  levied  and  commanded  all 
the  armies ;  he  drew  up  the  lists  of  senators,  knights, 
and  people;  he  levied  taxes;  he  was  supreme  judge;  he 
was  pontifex  maximus;  he  had  the  power  of  the  trib- 
unes. And  to  indicate  that  this  authority  made  him 
a  superhuman  being,  it  was  decreed  that  he  should  bear 
a  religious  surname:  Augustus  (the  venerable). 

The  empire  was  not  established  by  a  radical  revolu- 
tion. The  name  of  the  republic  was  not  suppressed 
and  for  more  than  three  centuries  the  standards  of  the 
soldiers  continued  to  bear  the  initials  S.  P.  Q.  R.  (sen- 
ate and  people  of  Rome).  The  emperor's  power  was 
granted  to  him  for  life  instead  of  for  one  year,  as  with 
the  old  magistrates.  The  emperor  was  the  only  and 
lifelong  magistrate  of  the  republic.  In  him  the  Ro- 
man people  was  incarnate ;  this  is  why  he  was  absolute. 

Apotheosis  of  the  Emperor. — As  long  as  the  emperor 
lived  he  was  sole  master  of  the  empire,  since  the 
Roman  people  had  conveyed  all  its  power  to  him.     But 

289 


290  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

at  his  death  the  Senate  in  the  name  of  the  people  re- 
viewed his  hfe  and  passed  judgment  upon  it.  If  he 
were  condemned,  all  the  acts  which  he  had  made  were 
nullified,  his  statues  thrown  down,  and  his  name  ef- 
faced from  the  monuments.^  If,  on  the  contrary,  his 
acts  were  ratified  (which  almost  always  occurred),  the 
Senate  at  the  same  time  decreed  that  the  deceased 
emperor  should  be  elevated  to  the  rank  of  the  gods. 
The  majority  of  the  emperors,  therefore,  became  gods 
after  their  death.  Temples  were  raised  to  them  and 
priests  appointed  to  render  them  worship.  Throughout 
the  empire  there  were  temples  dedicated  to  the  god 
Augustus  and  to  the  goddess  Roma,  and  persons  are 
known  who  performed  the  functions  of  flamen  (priest) 
of  the  divine  Claudius,  or  of  the  divine  Vespasian. 
This  practice  of  deifying  the  dead  emperor  was  called 
Apotheosis.  The  word  is  Greek ;  the  custom  probably 
came  from  the  Greeks  of  the  Orient. 

The  Senate  and  the  People — The  Roman  Senate 
remained  what  it  had  always  been — the  assembly  of  the 
richest  and  most  eminent  personages  of  the  empire. 
To  be  a  senator  was  still  an  eagerly  desired  honor;  in 
speaking  of  a  great  family  one  would  say,  ''a  senatorial 
family."  But  the  Senate,  respected  as  it  was,  was 
now  powerless,  because  the  emperor  could  dispense 
with  it.  It  was  still  the  most  distinguished  body  in  the 
state,  but  it  was  no  longer  the  master  of  the  govern- 
ment. The  emperor  often  pretended  to  consult  it,  but 
he  was  not  bound  by  its  advice. 

The  people  had  lost  all  its  power  since  the  assemblies 

*  Inscriptions  have  been  found  where  the  name  of  Domitian 
has  thus  been  cut  away. 


THE    EMPIRE   AT    ITS    HEIGHT  291 

(the  Comitia)  were  suppressed  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius. 
The  population  of  2,000,000  souls  crowded  into  Rome 
was  composed  only  of  some  thousands  of  great  lords 
with  their  slaves  and  a  mob  of  paupers.  Already  the 
state  had  assumed  the  burden  of  feeding  the  latter ;  the 
emperors  continued  to  distribute  grain  to  them,  and 
supplemented  this  with  donations  of  money  (the  con- 
giarium).  Augustus  thus  donated  $140  apiece  in 
nine  different  distributions,  and  Nero  $50  in  three. 
At  the  same  time  to  amuse  this  populace  shows  were 
presented.  The  number  of  days  regularly  appointed 
for  the  shows  under  the  republic  had  already  amounted 
to  66  in  the  year;  it  had  increased  in  a  century  and 
a  half,  under  Marcus  Aurelius,  to  135,  and  in  the 
fourth  century  to  175  (without  counting  supplementary 
days).  These  spectacles  continued  each  day  from 
sunrise  to  sunset ;  the  spectators  ate  their  lunch  in  their 
places.  This  was  a  means  used  by  the  emperors  for  the 
occupation  of  the  crowd.  'Tt  is  for  your  advantage, 
Caesar,"  said  an  actor  to  Augustus,  "that  the  people 
engage  itself  with  us."  It  was  also  a  means  for  secur- 
ing popularity.  The  worst  emperors  were  among  the 
most  popular;  Nero  was  adored  for  his  magnificent 
spectacles;  the  people  refused  to  believe  that  he  was 
dead,  and  for  thirty  years  they  awaited  his  return.^ 


1  Suetonius  ("Lives  of  the  Twelve  Caesars,"  Nero,  eh.  Ivii.) 
relates  that  the  king  of  the  Parthians,  when  he  sent  ambassadors 
to  the  Senate  to  renew  his  alliance  with  the  Roman  people, 
earnestly  requested  that  due  honor  should  be  paid  to  the  memory 
of  Nero.  The  historian  continues,  "When,  twenty  years  after- 
wards, at  which  time  I  was  a  young  man,  some  person  of  obscure 
birth  gave  himself  out  for  Nero,  that  name  secured  him  so  favor- 
able a  reception  from  the  Parthians  that  he  was  very  zealously 
supported,  and  it  was  with  much  difficulty  that  they  were 
persuaded  to  give  him  up." — Ed. 


292  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

The  multitude  of  Rome  no  longer  sought  to  govern ; 
it  required  only  to  be  amused  and  fed :  in  the  forceful 
expression  of  Juvenal — to  be  provided  with  bread  and 
the  games  of  the  circus  (panem  et  circenses). 

The  Praetorians. — Under  the  republic  a  general  was 
prohibited  from  leading  his  army  into  the  city  of 
Rome.  The  emperor,  chief  of  all  the  armies,  had  at 
Rome  his  military  escort  (prsetorium),  a  body  of  about 
10,000  men  quartered  in  the  interior  of  the  city.  The 
praetorians,  recruited  among  the  veterans,  received  high 
pay  and  frequent  donatives.  Relying  on  these  sol- 
diers, the  emperor  had  nothing  to  fear  from  malcon- 
tents in  Rome.  But  the  danger  came  from  the  praeto- 
rians themselves ;  as  they  had  the  power  they  believed 
they  had  free  rein,  and  their  chief,  the  praetorian  pre- 
fect, was  sometimes  stronger  than  the  emperor. 

The  Freedmen  of  the  Emperor. — Ever  since  the 
monarchy  had  superseded  the  republic,  there  was  no 
other  magistrate  than  the  emperor.  All  the  business 
of  the  empire  of  80,000,000  people  originated  with 
him.  For  this  crushing  task  he  required  assistants. 
He  found  them,  not  among  the  men  of  great  family 
whom  he  mistrusted,  but  among  the  slaves  of  whom  he 
felt  sure.  The  secretaries,  the  men  of  trust,  the  min- 
isters of  the  emperor  were  his  freedmen,  the  majority 
of  them  foreigners  from  Greece  or  the  Orient,  pliant 
people,  adepts  in  flattery,  inventiveness,  and  loquacity. 
Often  the  emperor,  wearied  with  serious  matters,  gave 
the  government  into  their  hands,  and,  as  occurs  in  ab- 
solute monarchies,  instead  of  aiding  their  master,  they 
supplemented  him.  Pallas  and  Narcissus,  the  freedmen 
of  Claudius,  distributed  offices  and  pronounced  judg- 


THE    EMPIRE   AT    ITS    HEIGHT  293 

ments ;  Helius,  Nero's  f reedman,  had  knights  and  sena- 
tors executed  without  e\en  consuhing  his  master.  Of 
all  the  freedmen  Pallas  was  the  most  powerful,  the 
richest,  and  the  most  insolent;  he  gave  his  orders  to 
his  underlings  only  by  signs  or  in  writing.  Nothing 
so  outraged  the  old  noble  families  of  Rome  as  this. 
"The  princes,"  said  a  Roman  writer,  "are  the  masters 
of  citizens  and  the  slaves  of  their  freedmen."  Among 
the  scandals  with  which  the  emperors  were  reproached, 
one  of  the  gravest  was  governing  Roman  citizens  by 
former  slaves. 

Despotism  and  Disorder. — This  regime  had  two  great 
vices : 

I.  Despotism. — The  emperor  was  invested  for  life 
with  a  power  unlimited,  extravagant,  and  hardly  con- 
ceivable ;  according  to  his  fancy  he  disposed  of  persons 
and  their  property,  condemned,  confiscated,  and  exe- 
cuted without  restraint.  No  institution,  no  law  fet- 
tered his  will.  "The  decree  of  the  emperor  has  the 
force  of  law,"  say  the  jurisconsults  themselves.  Rome 
recognized  then  the  unlimited  despotism  that  the  ty- 
rants had  exercised  in  the  Greek  cities,  no  longer  cir- 
cumscribed within  the  borders  of  a  single  city,  but 
gigantic  as  the  empire  itself.  As  in  Greece  some  hon- 
orable tyrants  had  presented  themselves,  one  sees  in 
Rome  some  wise  and  honest  monarchs  (Augustus, 
Vespasian,  Titus).  But  few  men  had  a  head  strong 
enough  to  resist  vertigo  when  they  saw  themselves  so 
elevated  above  other  men.  The  majority  of  the  em- 
perors profited  by  their  tremendous  power  only  to 
make  their  names  proverbial :  Tiberius,  Nero,  Domitian 
by  their  cruelty,  Vitellius  by  his  gluttony,  Claudius  by 


294  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

his  imbecility.  One  of  them,  CaHgula,  was  a  veritable 
fool ;  he  had  his  horse  made  consul  and  himself  wor- 
shipped as  a  god.  The  emperors  persecuted  the  nobles 
especially  to  keep  them  from  conspiring  against  them, 
and  the  rich  to  confiscate  their  goods. 

2.  Disorder. — This  overweening  authority  was, 
moreover,  very  ill  regulated;  it  resided  entirely  in  the 
person  of  the  emperor.  When  he  was  dead,  every- 
thing was  in  question.  It  was  w^ll  known  that  the 
world  could  not  continue  without  a  master,  but  no  law 
nor  usage  determined  who  was  to  be  this  master.  The 
Senate  alone  had  the  right  of  nominating  the  emperor, 
but  almost  always  it  would  elect  under  pressure  the  one 
whom  the  preceding  emperor  had  designated  or  the 
man  who  was  pleasing  to  the  soldiers. 

After  the  death  of  Caligula,  some  praetorians  who 
were  sacking  the  palace  discovered,  concealed  behind 
the  tapestry,  a  poor  man  trembling  with  fear.  This 
was  a  relative  of  Caligula;  the  praetorians  made  him 
emperor  (i|;  was  the  emperor  Claudius).  After  the 
death  of  Nero,  the  Senate  had  elected  Galba ;  the  prae- 
torians did  not  find  him  liberal  enough  arid  so  they 
massacred  him  to  set  up  in  his  place  Otho,  a  favorite 
of  Nero.  In  their  turn  the  soldiers  on  the  frontier 
wished  to  make  an  emperor :  the  legions  of  the  Rhine 
entered  Italy,  met  the  praetorians  at  Bedriac  near 
Cremona,  and  overthrew  them  in  so  furious  a  battle 
that  it  lasted  all  night ;  then  they  compelled  the  Senate 
to  elect  Vitellius,  their  general,  as  emperor.  During 
this  time  the  army  of  Syria  had  elected  its  chief  Ves- 
pasian, who  in  turn  defeated  Vitellius  and  was  named 
in  his  place ;  thus  in  two  years  three  emperors  had  been 


THE    EMPIRE   AT    ITS    HEIGHT  295 

created  and  three  overthrown  by  the  soldiers.  The 
new  emperor  often  undid  what  his  predecessor  had 
done;  imperial  despotism  had  not  even  the  advantage 
of  being  stable. 

The  Twelve  Caesars. — This  regime  of  oppression  in- 
terrupted by  violence  endured  for  more  than  a  century 
(31  B.C.  to  96  A.D.). 

The  twelve  emperors  who  came  to  the  throne  during 
this  time  are  called  the  Twelve  Caesars,  although  only 
the  first  six  were  of  the  family  of  Augustus.  It  is 
difficult  to  judge  them  equitably.  Almost  all  of  them 
persecuted  the  noble  families  of  Rome  of  w^hom  they 
were  afraid,  and  it  is  the  wTiters  of  these  families  that 
have  made  their  reputation.  But  it  is  quite  possible 
that  in  the  provinces  their  government  w^as  mild  and 
just,  superior  to  that  of  the  senators  of  the  republic. 

THE  CENTURY  OF  THE  ANTONINES 

The  Antonines — The  five  emperors  succeeding  the 
twelve  Caesars,  Nerva,  Trajan,  Hadrian,  Antoninus, 
and  Marcus  Aurelius  (96-180),  have  left  a  reputation 
for  justice  and  wisdom.  They  were  called  the  Anto- 
nines, though  this  name  properly  belongs  only  to  the 
last  two.  They  were  not  descended  from  the  old 
families  of  Rome;  Trajan  and  Hadrian  were  Span- 
iards, Antoninus  was  born  at  Nimes  in  Gaul.  They 
were  not  princes  of  imperial  family,  destined  from  their 
birth  to  rule.  Four  emperors  came  to  the  throne  with- 
out sons  and  so  the  empire  could  not  be  transmitted  by 
inheritance.  On  each  occasion  the  prince  chose  among 
his  generals  and  his  governors  the  man  most  capable 


296  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

of  succeeding  him;  he  adopted  him  as  his  son  and 
sought  his  confirmation  by  the  Senate.  Thus  there 
came  to  the  empire  only  experienced  men,  who  without 
confusion  assumed  the  throne  of  their  adoptive  fathers. 

Government  of  the  Antonines. — This  century  of  the 
Antonines  was  the  cahnest  that  the  ancient  world  had 
ever  known.  Wars  were  relegated  to  the  frontier  of 
the  empire.  In  the  interior  there  were  still  military 
seditions,  tyranny,  and  arbitrary  condemnations.  The 
Antonines  held  the  army  in  check,  organized  a  council 
of  state  of  jurisconsults,  established  tribunals,  and 
replaced  the  freedmen  who  had  so  long  irritated  the 
Romans  under  the  twelve  Csesars  by  regular  function- 
aries taken  from  among  the  men  of  the  second  class — 
that  is,  the  knights.  The  emperor  was  no  longer  a 
tyrant  served  by  the  soldiers;  he  was  truly  the  first 
magistrate  of  the  republic,  using  his  authority  only  for 
the  good  of  the  citizens.  The  last  two  Antonines 
especially,  Antoninus  and  Marcus  Aurelius,  honored 
the  empire  by  their  integrity.  Both  lived  simply,  like 
ordinary  men,  although  they  were  very  rich,  without 
anything  that  resembled  a  court  or  a  palace,  never  giv- 
ing the  impression  that  they  were  masters.  Marcus 
Aurelius  consulted  the  Senate  on  all  state  business  and 
regularly  attended  its  sessions. 

Marcus  Aurelius. — Marcus  Aurelius  has  been  termed 
the  Philosopher  on  the  Throne.  He  governed  from  a 
sense  of  duty,  against  his  disposition,  for  he  loved  soli- 
tude; and  yet  he  spent  his  life  in  administration  and 
the  command  of  armies.  His  private  journal  (his 
"Thoughts")  exhibits  the  character  of  the  Stoic — vir- 
tuous, austere,  separated  from  the  world,  and  yet  mild 


THE    EMPIRE   AT    ITS    HEIGHT  297 

and  good.  'The  best  form  of  vengeance  on  the  wicked 
is  not  to  imitate  them;  the  gods  themselves  do  good 
to  evil  men ;    it  is  your  privilege  to  act  like  the  gods." 

Conquests  of  the  Antonines. — The  emperors  of  the 
first  century  had  continued  the  course  of  conquest ;  they 
had  subjected  the  Britons  of  England,  the  Germans 
on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  and  in  the  provinces  had 
reduced  several  countries  which  till  then  had  retained 
their  kings — Mauretania,  Thrace,  Cappadocia.  The 
Rhine,  the  Danube,  and  the  Euphrates  were  the  limits 
of  the  empire. 

The  emperors  of  the  second  century  were  almost  all 
generals ;  they  had  the  opportunity  of  waging  numer- 
ous wars  to  repel  the  hostile  peoples  who  sought  to 
invade  the  empire.  The  enemies  were  in  two  quarters 
especially : 

1.  On  the  Danube  were  the  Dacians,  barbarous 
people,  who  occupied  the  country  of  mountains  and 
forests  now  called  Transylvania. 

2.  On  the  Euphrates  was  the  great  military  mon- 
archy of  the  Parthians  which  had  its  capital  at  Ctesi- 
phon,  near  the  ruins  of  Babylon,  and  which  extended 
over  all  Persia. 

Trajan  made  several  expeditions  against  the  Daci- 
ans, crossed  the  Danube,  won  three  great  battles,  and 
took  the  capital  of  the  Dacians  (101-102).  He  offered 
them  peace,  but  when  they  reopened  the  war  he  re- 
solved to  end  matters  with  them  :  he  had  a  stone  bridge 
built  over  the  Danube,  invaded  Dacia  and  reduced  it  to 
a  Roman  province  (106).  Colonies  were  transferred 
thither,  cities  were  built,  and  Dacia  became  a  Roman 
province  where  Latin  was  spoken  and  Roman  customs 


298  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

were  assimilated.  When  the  Roman  armies  withdrew 
at  the  end  of  the  third  century,  the  Latin  language  re- 
mained and  continued  throughout  the  Middle  Ages, 
notwithstanding  the  invasions  of  the  barbarian  Slavs. 
It  is  from  Transylvania  (ancient  Dacia)  that  the  peo- 
ples came  from  the  twelfth  to  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury who  now  inhabit  the  plains  to  the  north  of  the 
Danube.  It  has  preserved  the  name  of  Rome  (Rou- 
mania)  and  speaks  a  language  derived  from  the  Latin, 
like  the  French  or  Spanish.  Trajan  made  war  on 
the  Parthians  also.  He  crossed  the  Euphrates,  took 
Ctesiphon,  the  capital,  and  advanced  into  Persia,  even 
to  Susa,  whence  he  took  away  the  massive  gold  throne 
of  the  kings  of  Persia.  He  constructed  a  fleet  on  the 
Tigris,  descended  the  stream  to  its  mouth  and  sailed 
into  the  Persian  Gulf;  he  would  have  delighted,  like 
Alexander,  in  the  conquest  of  India.  He  took  from 
the  Parthians  the  country  between  the  Euphrates  and 
the  Tigris — Assyria  and  Mesopotamia — and  erected 
there  two  Roman  provinces. 

To  commemorate  his  conquests  Trajan  erected  mon- 
uments which  still  remain.  The  Column  of  Trajan 
on  the  Roman  Forum  is  a  shaft  whose  bas-reliefs  rep- 
resent the  war  against  the  Dacians.  The  arch  of 
triumph  of  Benevento  recalls  the  victories  over  the 
Parthians. 

Of  these  two  conquests  one  alone  was  permanent, 
that  of  Dacia.  The  provinces  conquered  from  the 
Parthians  revolted  after  the  departure  of  the  Roman 
army.  The  emperor  Hadrian  retained  Dacia,  but  re- 
turned their  provinces  to  the  Parthians,  and  the  Roman 
empire  again  made  the  Euphrates  its  eastern  frontier. 


THE   EMPIRE   AT    ITS    HEIGHT  299 

To  escape  further  warfare  with  the  highlanders  of 
Scotland,  Hadrian  built  a  wall  in  the  north  of  England 
(the  Wall  of  Hadrian)  extending  across  the  whole 
island.  There  was  no  need  of  other  wars  save  against 
the  revolting  Jews ;  these  people  were  overthrown  and 
expelled  from  Jerusalem,  the  name  of  which  was 
changed  to  obliterate  the  memory  of  the  old  Jewish 
kingdom. 

Marcus  Aurelius,  the  last  of  the  Antonines,  had  to 
resist  the  invasion  of  several  barbarous  peoples  of  Ger- 
many who  had  crossed  the  Danube  on  the  ice  and  had 
penetrated  even  to  Aquileia,  in  the  north  of  Italy.  In 
order  to  enroll  a  sufficient  army  he  had  to  enlist  slaves 
and  barbarians  (172).  The  Germans  retreated,  but 
while  Marcus  was  occupied  with  a  general  uprising  in 
Syria,  they  renewed  their  attacks  on  the  empire,  and 
the  emperor  died  on  the  banks  of  the  Danube  (180). 
This  was  the  end  of  conquest. 

IMPERIAL  ADMINISTRATION 

Extent  of  the  Empire  in  the  Second  Century The 

Roman  emperors  were  but  little  bent  on  conquest. 
But  to  occupy  their  army  and  to  secure  frontiers  which 
might  be  easily  defended,  they  continued  to  conquer 
barbarian  peoples  for  more  than  a  century.  \Mien  the 
course  of  conquest  was  finally  arrested  after  Trajan, 
the  empire  extended  over  all  the  south  of  Europe,  all 
the  north  of  Africa  and  the  west  of  Asia;  it  was  lim- 
ited only  by  natural  frontiers — the  ocean  to  the  west ; 
the  mountains  of  Scotland,  the  Rhine,  the  Danube,  and 
the  Caucasus  to  the  north ;  the  deserts  of  the  Euphrates 


300  ANCIENT    CIVILIZATION 

and  of  Arabia  to  the  east ;  the  cataracts  of  the  Nile  and 
the  great  desert  to  the  south.  The  empire,  therefore, 
embraced  the  countries  which  now  constitute  England, 
Spain,  Italy,  France,  Belgium,  Switzerland,  Bavaria, 
Austria,  Hungary,  European  Turkey,  Morocco,  Al- 
giers, Tunis,  Egypt,  Syria,  Palestine,  and  Asiatic 
Turkey.  It  was  more  than  double  the  extent  of  the 
empire  of  Alexander. 

This  immense  territory  was  subdivided  into  forty- 
eight  provinces,^  unequal  in  size,  but  the  majority  of 
them  very  large.  Thus  Gaul  from  the  Pyrenees  to  the 
Rhine  formed  but  seven  provinces. 

The  Permanent  Army — In  the  provinces  of  the  in- 
terior there  was  no  Roman  army,  for  the  peoples  of  the 
empire  had  no  desire  to  revolt.  It  was  on  the  frontier 
that  the  empire  had  its  enemies,  foreigners  always 
ready  to  invade :  behind  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube  the 
barbarian  Germans ;  behind  the  sands  of  Africa  the 
nomads  of  the  desert ;  behind  the  Euphrates  the  Persian 
army.  On  this  frontier  which  was  constantly  threat- 
ened it  was  necessary  to  have  soldiers  always  in  readi- 
ness. Augustus  had  understood  this,  and  so  created 
a  permanent  army.  The  soldiers  of  the  empire  were 
no  longer  proprietors  transferred  from  their  fields  to 
serve  during  a  few  campaigns,  but  poor  men  who  made 
war  a  profession.  They  enlisted  for  sixteen  or  twenty 
years  and  often  reenlisted.  There  were,  then,  thirty 
legions  of  citizens — that  is,  180,000  legionaries,  and, 
according  to  Roman  usage,  a  slightly  larger  number  of 
auxiliaries — in  all  about  400,000  men.  This  number 
was  small  for  so  large  a  territory. 

^  Italy  was  not  included  among  the  provinces 


THE    EMPIRE   AT    ITS    HEIGHT  301 

Each  frontier  province  had  its  Httle  army,  garrisoned 
in  a  permanent  camp  similar  to  a  fortress.  Merchants 
came  to  estabhsh  themselves  in  the  vicinity,  and  the 
camp  was  transformed  into  a  city ;  but  still  the  soldiers, 
encamped  in  the  face  of  the  enemy,  preserved  their 
valor  and  their  discipline.  There  were  for  three  cen- 
turies severe  wars,  especially  on  the  banks  of  the  Rhine 
and  of  the  Danube,  where  Romans  fought  fierce  bar- 
barians in  a  swampy  country,  uncultivated,  covered 
with  forests  and  bogs.  The  imperial  army  exhibited, 
perhaps,  as  much  bravery  and  energy  in  these  obscure 
wars  as  the  ancient  Romans  in  the  conquest  of  the 
world. 

Deputies  and  Agents  of  the  Emperor AH  the  prov- 
inces belonged  to  the  emperor^  as  the  representative 
of  the  Roman  people.  He  is  there  the  general  of  all 
the  soldiers,  master  of  all  persons,  and  proprietor  of  all 
lands.-  But  as  the  emperor  could  not  be  everywhere 
at  once,  he  sent  deputies  appointed  by  himself.  To 
each  province  went  a  lieutenant  (called  a  deputy  of 
Augustus  with  the  function  of  praetor)  ;  this  official 
governed  the  country,  commanded  the  army,  and  went 
on  circuit  through  his  province  to  judge  important 
cases,  for  he,  like  the  emperor,  had  the  right  of  life  and 
death. 

The  emperor  sent  also  a  financial  agent  to  levy  the 
taxes  and  return  the  money  to  the  imperial  chest. 
This  official  was  called  the  "procurator  of  Augustus." 
These  two  men  represented  the  emperor,  governing  his 

^  A  few  provinces,  the  less  important,  remained  to  the  Senate, 
but  the  emperor  was  ahnost  always  master  in  these  as  well. 

^  The  jurisconsult  Gaius  says,  "On  provincial  soil  we  can  have 
possession  only;    the  emperor  own§  the  property." 


302  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

subjects,  commanding  his  soldiers,  and  exploiting  his 
domain.  The  emperor  always  chose  them  among  the 
two  nobilities  of  Rome,  the  praetors  from  the  senators, 
the  procurators  from  the  knights.  For  them,  as  for 
the  magistrates  of  old  Rome,  there  was  a  succession 
of  offices :  they  passed  from  one  province  to  another, 
from  one  end  of  the  empire  to  the  other,^  from  Syria 
to  Spain,  from  Britain  to  Africa.  In  the  epitaphs  of 
officials  of  this  time  we  always  find  carefully  inscribed 
all  the  posts  which  they  have  occupied ;  inscriptions  on 
their  tombs  are  sufficient  to  construct  their  biographies. 
Municipal  Life. — Under  these  omnipotent  represen- 
tatives of  the  emperor  the  smaller  subject  peoples  con- 
tinued to  administer  their  own  government.  The  em- 
peror had  the  right  of  interfering  in  their  local  affairs, 
but  ordinarily  he  did  not  exercise  this  right.  He  only 
demanded  of  them  that  they  keep  the  peace,  pay  their 
taxes  regularly,  and  appear  before  the  tribunal  of  the 
governor.  There  were  in  every  province  several  of 
these  little  subordinate  governments ;  they  were  called, 
just  as  at  other  times  the  Roman  state  was  called, 
*'cities,"  and  sometimes  municipalities.  A  city  in  the 
empire  was  copied  after  the  Roman  city:  it  also  had 
its  assembly  of  the  people,  its  magistrates  elected  for  a 
year  and  grouped  into  colleges  of  two  members,  its 
senate  called  a  curia,  formed  of  the  great  proprietors, 
people  rich  and  of  old  family.  There,  as  at  Rome,  the 
assembly  of  the  people  was  hardly  more  than  a  form; 
it  is  the  senate — that  is  to  say,  the  nobility,  that  gov- 
erns. 

^  "Great  personages,"  says  Epictetus,  "cannot  root  them- 
selves like  plants;  they  must  be  much  on  the  move  in  obedience 
to  the  commands  of  the  emperor.'- 


THE   EMPIRE   AT    ITS    HEIGHT  303 

The  centre  of  the  provincial  city  was  always  a  town, 
a  Rome  in  miniature,  with  its  temples,  its  triumphal 
arches,  its  public  baths,  its  fountains,  its  theatres,  and 
its  arenas  for  the  combats.  The  life  led  there  was  that 
of  Rome  on  a  small  scale:  distributions  of  grain  and 
money,  public  banquets,  grand  religious  ceremonies, 
and  bloody  spectacles.  Only,  in  Rome,  it  was  the 
money  of  the  provinces  that  paid  the  expenses ;  in  the 
municipalities  the  nobility  itself  defrayed  the  costs  of 
government  and  fetes.  The  tax  levied  for  the  treasury 
of  the  emperor  went  entirely  to  the  imperial  chest;  it 
was  necessary,  then,  that  the  rich  of  the  city  should  at 
their  own  charges  celebrate  the  games,  heat  the  baths, 
pave  the  streets,  construct  the  bridges,  aqueducts,  and 
circuses.  They  did  this  for  more  than  two  centuries, 
and  did  it  generously;  monuments  scattered  over  the 
whole  of  the  empire  and  thousands  of  inscriptions  are 
a  witness  to  this. 

The  Imperial  Regime. — After  the  conquest  three  or 
four  hundred  families  of  the  nobility  of  Rome  gov- 
erned and  exploited  the  rest  of  the  world.  The  em- 
peror deprived  them  of  the  government  and  subjected 
them  to  his  tyranny.  The  Roman  writers  could  groan 
over  their  lost  liberty.  The  inhabitants  of  the  prov- 
inces had  nothing  to  regret;  they  remained  subject, 
but  in  place  of  several  hundreds  of  masters,  ceaselessly 
renewed  and  determined  to  enrich  themselves,  they  had 
now  a  single  sovereign,  the  emperor,  interested  to 
spare  them.  Tiberius  stated  the  imperial  policy  in  the 
following  words :  ^'A  good  shepherd  shears  his  sheep, 
but  does  not  flay  them."  For  more  than  two  centuries 
the  emperors  contented  themselves  with  shearing  the 


304  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

people  of  the  empire;  they  took  much  of  their  money, 
but  they  protected  them  from  the  enemy  without,  and 
even  against  their  own  agents.  When  the  provincials 
had  grounds  of  complaint  on  account  of  the  violence 
or  the  robbery  of  their  governor,  they  could  appeal  to 
the  emperor  and  secure  justice.  It  was  known  that 
the  emperor  received  complaints  against  his  subordi- 
nates; this  was  sufficient  to  frighten  bad  governors 
and  reassure  subjects.  Some  emperors,  like  Marcus 
Aurelius,  came  to  recognize  that  they  had  duties  to 
their  subjects.  The  other  emperors  at  least  left  their 
subjects  to  govern  themselves  when  they  had  no  in- 
terest to  prevent  this. 

The  imperial  regime  was  a  loss  for  the  Romans,  but 
a  deliverance  for  their  subjects:  it  abased  the  con- 
querors and  raised  the  vanquished,  reconciling  them 
and  preparing  them  for  assimilation  in  the  empire. 

SOCIAL  LIFE  UNDER  THE  EMPIRE 

Moral  Decay  Continues  at  Rome. — Seneca  in  his 
Letters  and  Juvenal  in  his  Satires  have  presented  por- 
traits of  the  men  and  women  of  their  time  so  striking 
that  the  corruption  of  the  Rome  of  the  Caesars  has  re- 
mained proverbial.  They  were  not  only  the  disorders 
left  over  from  the  republic — the  gross  extravagance  of 
the  rich,  the  ferocity  of  masters  against  their  slaves, 
the  unbridled  frivolity  of  women.  The  evil  did  not 
arise  with  the  imperial  regime,  but  resulted  from  the 
excessive  accumulation  of  the  riches  of  the  world  in  the 
hands  of  some  thousands  of  nobles  or  upstarts,  under 
whom  lived  some  hundreds  of  free  men  in  poverty. 


THE   EMPIRE   AT    ITS    HEIGHT  305 

and  slaves  by  millions  subjected  to  an  unrestrained 
oppression.  Each  of  these  great  proprietors  lived  in 
the  midst  of  his  slaves  like  a  petty  prince,  indolent  and 
capricious.  His  house  at  Rome  was  like  a  palace; 
every  morning  the  hall  of  honor  (the  atrium)  was 
filled  with  clients,  citizens  who  came  for  a  meagre 
salary  to  salute  the  master^  and  escort  him  in  the 
street.  For  fashion  required  that  a  rich  man  should 
never  appear  in  public  unless  surrounded  by  a  crowd ; 
Horace  ridicules  a  praetor  who  traversed  the  streets  of 
Tibur  with  only  five  slaves  in  his  following.  Outside 
Rome  the  great  possessed  magnificent  villas  at  the 
sea-shore  or  in  the  mountains ;  they  went  from  one  to 
the  other,  idle  and  bored. 

These  great  families  were  rapidly  extinguished. 
Alarmed  at  the  diminishing  number  of  free  men, 
Augustus  had  made  laws  to  encourage  marriage  and 
to  punish  celibacy.  As  one  might  expect,  his  laws 
did  not  remedy  the  evil.  There  were  so  many  rich 
men  who  had  not  married  that  it  had  become  a  lucra- 
tive trade  to  flatter  them  in  order  to  be  mentioned  in 
their  will;  by  having  no  children  one  could  surround 
himself  with  a  crowd  of  flatterers.  *Tn  the  city,"  says 
a  Roman  story-teller,  ''all  men  divide  themselves  into 
two  classes,  those  who  fish,  and  those  who  are  angled 
for."  "Losing  his  children  augments  the  influence 
of  a  man." 

The  Shows — In  the  life  of  this  idle  people  of  Rome 
the  spectacles  held  a  place  that  we  are  now  hardly  able 

*A  client's  task  was  a  hard  one;  the  poet  Martial,  who  had 
served  thus,  groans  about  it.  He  had  to  rise  before  day,  put  on 
his  toga  which  was  an  inconvenient  and  cumbersome  garment, 
and  wait  a  long  time  in  the  ante-room. 


306  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

to  conceive.  They  were,  as  in  Greece,  games,  that  is 
to  say,  reHgious  ceremonies.  The  games  proceeded 
throughout  the  day  and  again  on  the  following  day, 
and  this  for  a  week  at  least.  The  amphitheatre  was, 
as  it  were,  the  rendezvous  of  the  whole  free  population ; 
it  was  there  that  they  manifested  themselves.  Thus, 
in  196,  during  the  civil  wars,  all  the  spectators  cried 
with  one  voice,  "Peace!"  The  spectacle  was  the  pas- 
sion of  the  time.  Three  emperors  appeared  in  public, 
Caligula  as  a  driver,  Nero  as  an  actor,  Commodus  as 
a  gladiator. 

The  Theatre. — There  were  three  sorts  of  spectacles : 
the  theatre,  the  circus,  and  the  amphitheatre. 

The  theatre  was  organized  on  Greek  models.  The 
actors  were  masked  and  presented  plays  imitated  from 
the  Greek.  The  Romans  had  little  taste  for  this  rec- 
reation which  was  too  delicate  for  them.  They  pre- 
ferred the  mimes,  comedies  of  gross  character,  and 
especially  the  pantomimes  in  which  the  actor  without 
speaking  expressed  by  his  attitudes  the  sentiments  of 
the  character. 

The  Circus. — Between  the  two  hills  of  the  Aventine 
and  the  Palatine  extended  a  field  filled  with  race  courses 
surrounded  by  arcades  and  tiers  of  seats  rising  above 
them.  This  was  the  Circus  Maximus.  After  Nero 
enlarged  it  it  could  accommodate  250,000  spectators; 
in  the  fourth  century  its  size  was  increased  to  provide 
sittings  for  385,000  people. 

Here  was  presented  the  favorite  spectacle  of  the 
Roman  people,  the  four-horse  chariot  race  (quad- 
rigse)  ;  in  each  race  the  chariot  made  a  triple  circuit 
of  the  circus  and  there  were  twenty-five  races  in  a 


THE    EMPIRE   AT    ITS    HEIGHT  307 

single  day.  The  drivers  belonged  to  rival  companies 
whose  colors  they  wore;  there  were  at  first  four  of 
these  colors,  but  they  were  later  reduced  to  two — the 
Blue  and  the  Green,  notorious  in  the  history  of  riots. 
At  Rome  there  was  the  same  passion  for  chariot-races 
that  there  is  now  for  horse-races;  women  and  even 
children  talked  of  them.  Often  the  emperor  partici- 
pated and  the  quarrel  between  the  Blues  and  the  Greens 
became  an  affair  of  state. 

The  Amphitheatre. — At  the  gates  of  Rome  the  em- 
peror Vespasian  had  built  the  Colosseum,  an  enormous 
structure  of  two  stories,  accommodating  87,000  spec- 
tators. It  was  a  circus  surrounding  an  arena  where 
hunts  and  combats  were  represented. 

For  the  hunts  the  arena  was  transformed  into  a 
forest  where  wild  beasts  were  released  and  men  armed 
with  spears  came  into  combat  with  them.  Variety 
was  sought  in  this  spectacle  by  employing  the  rarest 
animals — lions,  panthers,  elephants,  bears,  buffaloes, 
rhinoceroses,  giraffes,  tigers,  and  crocodiles.  In  the 
games  presented  by  Pompey  had  already  appeared  sev- 
enteen elephants  and  five  hundred  lions;  some  of  the 
emperors  maintained  a  large  menagerie. 

Sometimes  instead  of  placing  armed  men  before  the 
beasts,  it  was  found  more  dramatic  to  let  loose  the 
animals  on  men  who  were  naked  and  bound.  The 
custom  spread  into  all  cities  of  the  empire  of  compelling 
those  condemned  to  death  to  furnish  this  form  of  enter- 
tainment for  the  people.  Thousands  of  persons  of 
both  sexes  and  of  every  age,  and  among  them  Christian 
martyrs,  were  thus  devoured  by  beasts  under  the  eyes 
of  the  multitude. 


308  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

The  Gladiators — But  tlie  national  spectacle  of  the 
Romans  was  the  fight  of  gladiators  (men  armed  with 
swords).  Armed  men  descended  into  the  arena  and 
fought  a  duel  to  the  death.  From  the  time  of  Caesar^ 
as  many  as  320  pairs  of  gladiators  were  fought  at 
once;  Augustus  in  his  whole  life  fought  10,000  of 
them,  Trajan  the  same  number  in  four  months.  The 
vanquished  was  slain  on  the  field  unless  the  people 
wished  to  show  him  grace. 

Sometimes  the  condemned  were  compelled  to  fight, 
but  more  often  slaves  and  prisoners  of  war.  Each 
victory  thus  brought  to  the  amphitheatre  bands  of  bar- 
barians who  exterminated  one  another  for  the  delight 
of  the  spectators.-  Gladiators  were  furnished  by  all 
countries — Gauls,  Germans,  Thracians,  and  sometimes 
negroes.  These  peoples  fought  with  various  weapons, 
usually  with  their  national  arms.  The  Romans  loved 
to  behold  these  battles  in  miniature. 

There  were  also,  among  these  contestants  in  the 
circus,  some  who  fought  from  their  own  choice,  free 
men  who  from  a  taste  for  danger  submitted  to  the 
terrible  discipline  of  the  gladiator,  and  swore  to  their 
chief  "to  allow  themselves  to  be  beaten  with  rods,  be 
burned  with  hot  iron,  and  even  be  killed."  Many  sen- 
ators enrolled  themselves  in  these  bands  of  slaves  and 
adventurers,  and  even  an  emperor,  Commodus,  de- 
scended into  the  arena. 

*  Caesar  gave  also  a  combat  between  two  troops,  each  corn- 
posed  of  500  archers,  300  knights  (30  knights  according  to 
Suetonius;    Julius,  ch.  39),  and  20  elephants. 

2  In  an  official  discourse  an  orator  thanks  the  emperor  Con- 
stantine  who  had  given  to  the  amphitheatre  an  entire  army  of 
barbarian  captives,  "to  bring  about  the  destruction  of  these  men 
for  the  amusement  of  the  people.  What  triumph,"  he  cried, 
"could  have  been  more  glorious?!- 


THE    EMPIRE   AT    ITS    HEIGHT  309 

These  bloody  games  were  practised  not  only  at 
Rome,  but  in  all  the  cities  of  Italy,  Gaul,  and  Africa. 
The  Greeks  always  opposed  their  adoption.  An  in- 
scription on  a  statue  raised  to  one  of  the  notables  in  the 
little  city  of  Minturnae  runs  as  follows :  ''He  presented 
in  four  days  eleven  pairs  of  gladiators  who  ceased  to 
fight  only  when  half  of  them  had  fallen  in  the  arena. 
He  gave  a  hunt  of  ten  terrible  bears.  Treasure  this  in 
memory,  noble  fellow-citizens."  The  people,  there- 
fore, had  the  passion  for  blood,^  which  still  manifests 
itself  in  Spain  in  bull-fights.  The  emperor,  like  the 
modern  king  of  Spain,  must  be  present  at  these  butch- 
eries. Marcus  Aurelius  became  unpopular  in  Rome 
because  he  exhibited  his  weariness  at  the  spectacles 
of  the  amphitheatre  by  reading,  speaking,  or  giving 
audiences  instead  of  regarding  the  games.  When  he 
enlisted  gladiators  to  serve  against  the  barbarians  who 
invaded  Italy,  the  populace  was  about  to  revolt.*  "He 
would  deprive  us  of  our  amusements,"  cried  one,  "to 
compel  us  to  become  philosophers." 

The  Roman  Peace. — But  there  was  in  the  empire 
something  else  than  the  populace  of  Rome.  To  be 
just  to  the  empire  as  a  whole  one  must  consider  events 
in  the  provinces.  By  subjecting  all  peoples,  the 
Romans  had  suppressed  war  in  the  interior  of  their 
empire.  Thus  was  established  the  Roman  Peace  w^hich 
a  Greek  author  describes  in  the  following  language : 
"Every  man  can  go  where  he  will ;  the  harbors  are  full 
of  ships,  the  mountains  are  safe  for  travellers  just  as 
the  towns  for  their  inhabitants.     Fear  has  everywhere 

*  St.  Augustine  in  his  "  Confessions  "  describes  the  irresistible 
attraction  of  these  sanguinary  spectacles. 


310  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

ceased.  The  land  has  put  off  its  old  armor  of  iron  and 
put  on  festal  garments.  You  have  reahzed  the  word 
of  Homer,  'the  earth  is  common  to  all.'  "  For  the 
first  time,  indeed,  men  of  the  Occident  could  build  their 
houses,  cultivate  their  fields,  enjoy  their  property  and 
their  leisure  without  fearing  at  every  moment  being 
robbed,  massacred,  or  thrown  into  slavery — a  security 
which  we  can  hardly  appreciate  since  we  have  enjoyed 
it  from  infancy,  but  which  seemed  very  sweet  to  the 
men  of  antiquity. 

The  Fusion  of  Peoples. — In  this  empire  now  at  peace 
travel  became  easy.  The  Romans  had  built  roads  in 
every  direction  with  stations  and  relays ;  they  had  also 
made  road-maps  of  the  empire.  Many  people,  arti- 
sans, traders,  journeyed  from  one  end  of  the  empire  to 
the  other. ^  Rhetors  and  philosophers  penetrated  all 
Europe,  going  from  one  city  to  another  giving  lec- 
tures. In  every  province  could  be  found  men  from 
the  most  remote  provinces.  Inscriptions  show  us  in 
Spain  professors,  painters,  Greek  sculptors;  in  Gaul, 
goldsmiths  and  Asiatic  workmen.  Everybody  trans- 
ported and  mingled  customs,  arts,  and  religion.  Little 
by  little  they  accustomed  themselves  to  speak  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Romans.  From  the  third  century  the 
Latin  had  become  the  common  language  of  the  West, 
as  the  Greek  since  the  successors  of  Alexander  had  been 
the  language  of  the  Orient.  Thus,  as  in  Alexandria,  a 
common  civilization  was  developed.  This  has  been 
called  by  the  name  Roman,  though  it  was  this  hardly 
more  than  in  name  and  in  language.     In  reality,  it  was 

^  A  Phrygian  relates  in  an  inscription  that  he  had  made 
seventy-two  voyages  from  Asia  to  Italy. 


THE    EMPIRE   AT    ITS    HEIGHT  311 

the  ci\ilization  of  the  ancient  world  united  under  the 
emperor's  authority. 

Superstitions. — Rehgious  behefs  were  everywhere 
blended.  As  the  ancients  did  not  believe  in  a  single 
God,  it  was  easy  for  them  to  adopt  new  gods.  All 
peoples,  each  of  whom  had  its  own  religion,  far  from 
rejecting  the  religions  of  others,  adopted  the  gods  of 
their  neighbors  and  fused  them  with  their  own.  The 
Romans  set  the  example  by  raising  the  Pantheon,  a 
temple  to  "all  the  gods,"  where  each  deity  had  his  sanc- 
tuary. 

Everywhere  there  was  much  credulity.  Men  be- 
lieved in  the  divinity  of  the  dead  emperors;  it  was 
believed  that  Vespasian  had  in  Egypt  healed  a  blind 
man  and  a  paralytic.  During  the  war  with  the  Daci- 
ans  the  Roman  army  was  perishing  of  thirst;  all  at 
once  it  began  to  rain,  and  the  sudden  storm  appeared  to 
all  as  a  miracle ;  some  said  that  an  Egyptian  magician 
had  conjured  Hermes,  others  believed  that  Jupiter  had 
taken  pity  on  the  soldiers;  and  on  the  column  of 
Alarcus  Aurelius  Jupiter  was  represented,  thunderbolt 
in  hand,  sending  the  rain  which  the  soldiers  caught  in 
,  their  bucklers. 

When  the  apostles  Barnabas  and  Paul  came  to  the 
city  of  Lystra  in  Asia  ]\Iinor,  the  inhabitants  invoked 
Barnabas  as  Jupiter  and  Paul  as  Mercury;  they  were 
met  by  a  procession,  with  priests  at  the  head  leading  a 
bull  which  they  were  about  to  sacrifice. 

Cultured  people  were  none  the  less  credulous.^  The 
Stoic  philosophers  admitted  omens.     The  emperor  Au- 

*  There  were  some  sceptical  writers,  like  Liician,  but  they  were 
isolated. 


312  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

gustus  regarded  it  as  a  bad  sign  when  he  put  on  the 
wrong  shoe.  Suetonius  wrote  to  Phny  the  Younger, 
begging  him  to  transfer  his  case  to  another  day  on 
account  of  a  dream  which  he  had  had.  Phny  the 
Younger  beheved  in  ghosts. 

Among  peoples  ready  to  admit  everything,  different 
rehgions,  instead  of  going  to  pieces,  fused  into  a  com- 
mon rehgion.  This  rehgion,  at  once  Greek,  Roman, 
Egyptian,  and  Asiatic,  dominated  the  world  at  the 
second  century  of  our  era;  and  so  the  Christians 
called  it  the  religion  of  the  nations ;  down  to  the  fourth 
century  they  gave  the  pagans  the  name  of  ''gentiles" 
(men  of  the  nations)  ;  at  the  same  time  the  common 
law  was  called  the  Law  of  Nations. 


CHAPTER   XXV 
THE  ARTS  AND  SCIENCES  IN  ROME 

LETTERS 

Imitation  of  the  Greeks. — The  Romans  were  not 
artists  naturally.  They  became  so  very  late  and  by 
imitating  the  Greeks.  From  Greece  they  took  their 
models  of  tragedy,  comedy,  the  epic,  the  ode,  the 
didactic  poem,  pastoral  poetry,  and  history.  Some 
writers  limited  themselves  to  the  free  translation  of  a 
Greek  original  (as  Horace  in  his  Odes).  All  bor- 
rowed from  the  Greeks  at  least  their  ideas  and  their 
forms.  But  they  carried  into  this  work  of  adaptation 
their  qualities  of  patience  and  vigor,  and  many  came  to 
a  true  originality. 

The  Age  of  Augustus. — There  is  common  agreement 
in  regarding  the  fifty  years  of  the  government  of  Au- 
gustus as  the  most  brilliant  period  in  Latin  literature. 
It  is  the  time  of  Vergil,  Horace,  Ovid,  Tibullus,  Pro- 
pertius,  and  Livy.  The  emperor,  or  rather  his  friend 
Maecenas,  personally  patronized  some  of  these  poets, 
especially  Horace  and  Vergil,  who  sang  the  glory  of 
Augustus  and  of  his  time.  But  this  Augustan  Age 
was  preceded  and  followed  by  two  centuries  that  per- 
haps equalled  it.  It  was  in  the  preceding  century,^ 
the  first  before  Christ,  that  the  most  original  Roman 
^  Sometimes  called  the  Age  of  Cicero. 
313 


314  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

poet^  appeared,  Caesar  the  most  elegant  prose-writer, 
and  Cicero  the  greatest  orator.  It  was  in  the  follow- 
ing age  that  Seneca,  Lucan,  Tacitus,  Pliny,  and  Juvenal 
wrote.  Between  Lucretius  and  Tacitus  there  were 
for  three  centuries  many  great  writers  in  Rome.  One 
might  also  add  another  century  by  recurring  to  the 
time  of  Plautus,  the  second  century  before  Christ. 

Of  these  great  authors  a  few  had  their  origin  in 
Roman  families;  but  the  majority  of  them  were  Ital- 
ians. Many  came  from  the  provinces,  Vergil  from 
Mantua,  Livy  from  Padua  (in  Cisalpine  Gaul),  while 
Seneca  was  a  Spaniard. 

Orators  and  Rhetors — The  true  national  art  at  Rome 
was  eloquence.  Like  the  Italians  of  our  day,  the 
Romans  loved  to  speak  in  public.  In  the  forum  where 
they  held  the  assemblies  of  the  people  was  the  rostrum, 
the  platform  for  addressing  the  people,  so  named  from 
the  prows  of  captured  ships  that  ornamented  it  like 
trophies  of  war.  Thither  the  orators  came  in  the  last 
epoch  of  the  republic  to  declaim  and  to  gesticulate 
before  a  tumultuous  crowd. 

The  tribunals,  often  composed  of  a  hundred  judges, 
furnished  another  occasion  for  eloquent  advocates. 
The  Roman  law  permitted  the  accused  to  have  an  ad- 
vocate speak  in  his  place. 

There  were  orators  in  Rome  from  the  second  cen- 
tury. Here,  as  in  Athens,  the  older  orators,  such  as 
Cato  and  the  Gracchi,  spoke  simply,  too  simply  for  the 
taste  of  Cicero.  Those  who  followed  them  in  the  first 
century  learned  in  the  schools  of  the  Greek  rhetors  the 
long  oratorical  periods  and  pompous  style.  The  great- 
^  Lucretius. — Ed. 


THE   ARTS   AND   SCIENCES    IN    ROME  315 

est  of  all  was  Cicero,  the  only  one  whose  works  have 
come  down  to  us  in  anything  but  fragments;  and  yet 
we  have  his  speeches  as  they  were  left  by  him  and  not 
as  they  were  delivered.^ 

With  the  fall  of  the  republic  the  assemblies  and  the 
great  political  trials  ceased.  Eloquence  perished  for 
the  want  of  matter,  and  the  Roman  writers  remarked 
this  with  bitterness.^  Then  the  rhetors  commenced 
to  multiply,  wdio  taught  the  art  of  speaking  well.^ 
Some  of  these  teachers  had  their  pupils  compose  as 
exercises  pleas  on  imaginary  rhetorical  subjects.  The 
rhetor  Seneca  has  left  us  many  of  these  oratorical 
themes;  they  discuss  stolen  children,  brigands,  and 
romantic  adventures. 

Then  came  the  mania  for  public  lectures.  Pollio,  a 
favorite  of  Augustus,  had  set  the  example.  For  a  cen- 
tury it  was  the  fashion  to  read  poems,  panegyrics,  even 
tragedies  before  an  audience  of  friends  assembled  to 
applaud  them.  The  taste  for  eloquence  that  had  once 
produced  great  orators  exhibited  in  the  later  centuries 
only  finished  declaimers. 

Importance  of  the  Latin  Literature  and  Language. — 
Latin  literature  profited  by  the  conquests  of  Rome ;  the 
Romans  carried  it  with  their  language  to  their  bar- 
barian subjects  of  the  West.  All  the  peoples  of  Italy, 
Gaul,  Spain,  Africa,  and  the  Danubian  lands  discarded 
their  language  and  took  the  Latin.    Having  no  national 

*One  of  the  most  noted,  the  plea  for  Milo,  was  written  much 
later.  Cicero  at  the  time  of  the  delivery  was  distracted  and  said 
almost  nothing. 

2  See  the  "Dialogue  of  the  Orators,"  attributed  to  Tacitus. 

^  The  word  "rhetor"  signified  in  Greek  simply  orator;  the 
Romans  used  the  word  in  a  mistaken  sense  to  designate  the 
men  who  made  a  profession  of  speaking. 


316  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

literature,  they  adopted  that  of  their  masters.  The 
empire  was  thus  divided  between  the  two  languages  of 
the  two  great  peoples  of  antiquity :  the  Orient  con- 
tinued to  speak  Greek;  almost  the  entire  Occident  ac- 
quired the  Latin.  Latin  was  not  only  the  official 
language  of  the  state  functionaries  and  of  great  men, 
like  the  English  of  our  day  in  India ;  the  people  them- 
selves spoke  it  with  greater  or  less  correctness — in  fact, 
so  well  that  today  eighteen  centuries  after  the  con- 
quest five  languages  of  Europe  are  derived  from  the 
Latin — the  Italian,  Spanish,  Portuguese,  French,  and 
Roumanian. 

With  the  Latin  language  the  Latin  literature  ex- 
tended itself  over  all  the  West.  In  the  schools  of  Bor- 
deaux and  Autun  in  the  fifth  century  only  Latin  poets 
and  orators  were  studied.  After  the  coming  of  the 
barbarians,  bishops  and  monks  continued  to  write  in 
Latin  and  they  carried  this  practice  among  the  peoples 
of  England  and  Germany  who  were  still  speaking  their 
native  languages.  Throughout  almost  the  whole 
mediaeval  period,  acts,  laws,  histories,  and  books  of 
science  were  written  in  Latin.  In  the  convents  and  the 
schools  they  read,  copied,  and  appreciated  only  works 
written  in  Latin ;  beside  books  of  piety  only  the  Latin 
authors  w^ere  known — Vergil,  Horace,  Cicero,  and 
Pliny  the  Younger.  The  renaissance  of  the  fifteenth 
and  sixteenth  centuries  consisted  partly  in  reviving  the 
forgotten  Latin  writers.  More  than  ever  it  w^as  the 
fashion  to  know  and  to  imitate  them. 

As  the  Romans  constructed  a  literature  in  imitation 
of  the  Greeks,  the  moderns  have  taken  the  Latin  waiters 
for  their  models.    Was  this  good  or  bad  ?    Who  would 


THE   ARTS    AXD   SCIENCES    IX    ROME  317 

venture  to  say?  But  the  fact  is  indisputable.  Our 
romance  languages  are  daughters  of  the  Latin,  our 
literatures  are  full  of  the  ideas  and  of  the  literary 
methods  of  the  Romans.  The  whole  western  world  is 
impregnated  with  the  Latin  literature. 

THE  ARTS 

Sculpture  and  Painting. — Great  numbers  of  Roman 
statues  and  bas-reliefs  of  the  time  of  the  empire  have 
come  to  light.  Some  are  reproductions  and  almost  all 
are  imitations  of  Greek  works,  but  less  elegant  and 
less  delicate  than  the  models.  The  most  original  pro- 
ductions of  this  form  of  art  are  the  bas-reliefs  and 
the  busts. 

Bas-reliefs  adorned  the  monuments  (temples,  col- 
umns, and  triumphal  arches),  tombs,  and  sarcophagi. 
They  represent  with  scrupulous  fidelity  real  scenes, 
such  as  processions,  sacrifices,  combats,  and  funeral 
ceremonies  and  so  give  us  information  about  ancient 
life.  The  bas-reliefs  which  surround  the  columns  of 
Trajan  and  Marcus  Aurelius  bring  us  into  the  presence 
of  the  great  scenes  of  their  wars.  One  may  see  the 
soldiers  fighting  against  the  barbarians,  besieging  their 
fortresses,  leading  away  the  captives;  the  solemn  sac- 
rifices, and  the  emperor  haranguing  the  troops. 

The  busts  are  especially  those  of  the  emperors,  of 
their  wives  and  their  children.  As  they  were  scattered 
in  profusion  throughout  the  empire,  so  many  have  been 
found  that  today  all  the  great  museums  of  Europe  have 
collections  of  imperial  busts.  They  are  real  portraits, 
probably  very  close  resemblances,  for  each  emperor  had 


318  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

a  well-marked  physiognomy,  often  of  a  striking  ugli- 
ness that  no  one  attempted  to  disguise. 

In  general,  Roman  sculpture  holds  itself  much  more 
close  to  reality  than  does  the  Greek ;  it  may  be  said 
that  the  artist  is  less  concerned  with  representing  things 
beautifully  than  exactly. 

Of  Roman  painting  we  know  only  the  frescoes 
painted  on  the  walls  of  the  rich  houses  of  Pompeii  and 
of  the  house  of  Livy  at  Rome.  We  do  not  know  but 
these  were  the  work  of  Greek  painters ;  they  bear  a  close 
resemblance  to  the  paintings  on  Greek  vases,  having 
the  same  simple  and  elegant  grace. 

Architecture. — The  true  Roman  art,  because  it  op- 
erated to  satisfy  a  practical  need,  is  architecture.  In 
this  too  the  Romans  imitated  the  Greeks,  borrowing 
the  column  from  them.  But  they  had  a  form  that  the 
Greeks  never  employed — the  arch,  that  is  to  say,  the 
art'  of  arranging  cut  stones  in  the  arc  of  a  circle  so 
that  they  supported  one  another.  The  arch  allowed 
them  to  erect  buildings  much  larger  and  more  varied 
than  those  of  the  Greeks.  The  following  are  the  prin- 
cipal varieties  of  Roman  monuments  : 

1.  The  Temple  was  sometimes  similar  to  a  Greek 
temple  with  a  broad  vestibule,  sometimes  vaster  and 
surmounted  with  a  dome.  Of  this  sort  is  the  Pan- 
theon built  in  Rome  under  Augustus. 

2.  The  Basilica  was  a  long  low  edifice,  covered 
with  a  roof  and  surrounded  with  porticos.  There  sat 
the  judge  with  his  assistants  about  him;  traders  dis- 
cussed the  price  of  goods ;  the  place  was  at  once  a 
bourse  and  a  tribunal.  It  was  in  the  basilicas  that  the 
assemblies  of  the  Christians  were  later  held,  and  for 


THE    ARTS    AND    SCIENCES    IN    ROME  319 

several  centuries  the  Christian  churches  preserved  the 
name  and  form  of  basihcas. 

3.  The  Amphitheatre  and  the  Circus  were  con- 
structed of  several  stories  of  arcades  surrounding  an 
arena;  each  range  of  arcades  supported  many  rows  of 
seats.  Such  were  the  Colosseum  at  Rome  and  the 
arenas  at  Aries  and  Ximes. 

4.  The  Arch  of  Triumph  was  a  gate  of  honor  wide 
enough  for  the  passage  of  a  chariot,  adorned  with  col- 
umns and  surmounted  with  a  group  of  sculpture. 
The  Arch  of  Titus  is  an  example. 

5.  The  Sepulchral  Vault  was  an  arched  edifice  pro- 
vided with  many  rows  of  niches,  in  each  of  which  were 
laid  the  ashes  of  a  corpse.  It  was  called  a  Columbar- 
ium (pigeon-house)  from  its  shape. 

6.  The  Thermcu  were  composed  of  bathing-halls 
furnished  with  basins.  The  heat  was  provided  by  a 
furnace  placed  in  an  underground  chamber.  The 
Thermae  in  a  Roman  city  were  what  the  gymnasium 
was  in  a  Greek  city — a  rendezvous  for  the  idle.  Much 
more  than  the  gymnasium  it  was  a  labyrinth  of  halls  of 
every  sort :  there  were  a  cool  hall,  warm  apartments, 
a  robing-room,  a  hall  where  the  body  was  anointed 
with  oil,  parlors,  halls  for  exercise,  gardens,  and  the 
whole  surrounded  by  an  enormous  wall.  Thus  the 
Thermae  of  Caracalla  covered  an  immense  area. 

7.  The  Bridge  and  the  Aqueduct  were  supported 
by  a  range  of  arches  thrown  over  a  river  or  over  a 
valley.  Examples  are  the  bridge  of  Alcantara  and 
the  Pont  du  Card. 

8.  The  House  of  a  rich  Roman  was  a  work  of  art. 
Unlike  our  modern  houses,  the  ancient  house  had  no 


320  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

fagade ;  the  house  was  turned  entirely  toward  the  in- 
terior ;  on  the  outside  it  showed  only  bare  walls. 

The  rooms  were  small,  ill  furnished,  and  dark ;  they 
were  lighted  only  through  the  atrium.  In  the  centre 
was  the  great  hall  of  honor  (the  atrium)  where  the 
statues  of  the  ancestors  w^ere  erected  and  wdiere  visitors 
were  received.  It  was  illuminated  by  an  opening  in 
the  roof. 

Behind  the  atrium  was  the  peristyle,  a  garden  sur- 
rounded by  colonnades,  in  which  were  the  dining  halls, 
richly  ornamented  and  provided  with  couches,  for 
among  the  rich  Romans,  as  among  the  Asiatic  Greeks, 
guests  reclined  on  couches  at  the  banquets.  The  pave- 
ment was  often  made  of  mosaic. 

Character  of  the  Roman  Architecture. — The  Ro- 
mans,^ unlike  the  Greeks,  did  not  always  build  in  mar- 
ble. Ordinarily  they  used  the  stone  that  they  found  in 
the  country,  binding  this  together  with  an  indestructi- 
ble mortar  which  has  resisted  even  dampness  for  eigh- 
teen hundred  years.  Their  monuments  have  not  the 
wonderful  grace  of  the  Greek  monuments,  but  they 
are  large,  strong,  and  solid — like  the  Roman  power. 
The  soil  of  the  empire  is  still  covered  with  their 
debris.  We  are  astonished  to  find  monuments  almost 
intact  as  remote  as  the  deserts  of  Africa.  When  it 
was  planned  to  furnish  a  water-system  for  the  city  of 
Tunis,  all  that  had  to  be  done  was  to  repair  a  Roman 
aqueduct. 

Rome  and  Its  Monuments — Rome  at  the  time  of  the 

^  The  same  reserve  must  be  maintained  with  regard  to  the  arts 
as  to  the  hterattire.  The  builders  of  the  Roman  monuments 
were  not  Romans,  but  provincials,  often  slaves;  the  only  Roman 
would  be  the  master  for  whom  the  slaves  worked. 


THE   ARTS   AND   SCIENCES    IN    ROME  321 

emperors  was  a  city  of  2,000,000  inhabitants.^  This 
population  was  herded  in  houses  of  five  and  six  stories, 
poorly  built  and  crowded  together.  The  populous 
quarters  were  a  labyrinth  of  tortuous  paths,  steep,  and 
ill  paved.  Juvenal  who  frequented  them  leaves  us  a 
picture  of  them  which  has  little  attractiveness.  At 
Pompeii,  a  city  of  luxury,  it  may  be  seen  how  narrow 
were  the  streets  of  a  Roman  city.  In  the  midst  of 
hovels  monuments  by  the  hundred  would  be  erected. 
The  emperor  Augustus  boasted  of  having  restored 
more  than  eighty  temples.  "I  found  a  city  of  bricks/' 
said  he;  'T  leave  a  city  of  marble."  His  successors 
all  worked  to  embellish  Rome.  It  was  especially  about 
the  Forum  that  the  monuments  accumulated.  The 
Capitol  with  its  temple  of  Jupiter  became  almost  like 
the  Acropolis  at  Athens.  In  the  same  quarter  many 
monumental  areas  were  constructed — the  forum  of 
Caesar,  the  forum  of  Augustus,  the  forum  of  Nerva, 
and,  most  brilliant  of  all,  the  forum  of  Trajan.  Two 
villas  surrounded  by  a  park  were  situated  in  the  midst 
of  the  city;  the  most  noted  was  the  Golden  House, 
built  for  Nero 

THE  LAW 

The  Twelve  Tables — The  Romans,  like  all  other 
ancient  peoples,  had  at  first  no  written  laws.  They 
followed  the  customs  of  the  ancestors — that  is  to  say, 
each  generation  did  in  everything  just  as  the  pre- 
ceding generation  did. 

In  450  ten  specially  elected  magistrates,  the  decem- 

^  This  estimate  is  too  liberal.  1,500,000  is  probably  nearer 
the  truth,     See  Friedlaender,  Sittengeschichte  Roms,  i.,  25.— Ed. 


322  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

virs,  made  a  series  of  laws  that  they  wrote  on  twelve 
tables  of  stone.  This  was  the  Law  of  the  Twelve 
Tables,  codified  in  short,  rude,  and  trenchant  sentences 
— a  legislation  severe  and  rude  like  the  semi-barbarous 
people  for  whom  it  was  made.  It  punished  the  sor- 
cerer who  by  magical  words  blasted  the  crop  of  his 
neighbor.  It  pronounced  against  the  insolvent  debtor, 
"If  he  does  not  pay,  he  shall  be  cited  before  the  court ; 
if  sickness  or  age  deter  him,  a  horse  shall  be  furnished 
him,  but  no  litter ;  he  may  have  thirty  days'  delay,  but 
if  he  does  not  satisfy  the  debt  in  this  time,  the  cred- 
itor may  bind  him  with  straps  or  chains  of  fifteen 
pounds  weight;  at  the  end  of  sixty  days  he  may  be 
sold  beyond  the  Tiber ;  if  there  are  many  creditors,  they 
may  cut  him  in  parts,  and  if  they  cut  more  or  less,^ 
there  is  no  wrong  in  the  act."  According  to  the  word 
of  Cicero,  the  Law  of  the  Twelve  Tables  was  "tlie 
source  of  all  the  Roman  law."  Four  centuries  after  it 
was  written  down  the  children  had  to  learn  it  in  the 
schools. 

The  Symbolic  Process — In  the  ancient  Roman  law  it 
was  not  enough  in  buying,  selling,  or  inheriting  that 
this  was  the  intention  of  the  actor;  to  obtain  justice 
in  the  Roman  tribunal  it  was  not  sufficient  to  present 
the  case;  one  had  to  pronounce  certain  words  and  use 
certain  gestures.  Consider,  for  example,  the  manner 
of  purchasing.  In  the  presence  of  five  citizens  who 
represent  an  assembly  and  of  a  sixth  who  holds  a  bal- 
ance in  his  hand,  the  buyer  places  in  the  balance  a 
piece  of  brass  which  represents  the  price  of  the  thing 
sold.  If  it  be  an  animal  or  a  slave  that  is  sold,  the 
purchaser  touches  it  with  his  hand  saying,  "This  is 


THE   ARTS   AND   SCIENCES    IN    ROME  323 

mine  by  the  law  of  the  Romans,  I  have  bought  it  with 
this  brass  duly  weighed."  Before  the  tribunal  every 
process  is  a  pantomime:  to  reclaim  an  object  one  seizes 
it  with  the  hand ;  to  protest  against  a  neighbor  who  has 
erected  a  wall,  a  stone  is  thrown  against  the  wall. 
When  two  men  claim  proprietorship  in  a  field,  the  fol- 
lowing takes  place  at  the  tribunal :  the  two  adversaries 
grasp  hands  and  appear  to  fight ;  then  they  separate  and 
each  says,  "I  declare  this  field  is  mine  by  the  law  of 
the  Romans;  I  cite  you  before  the  tribunal  of  the 
praetor  to  debate  our  right  at  the  place  in  question." 
The  judge  orders  them  to  go  to  the  place.  "Before 
these  witnesses  here  present,  this  is  your  road  to  the 
place;  go!"  The  litigants  take  a  few  steps  as  if  to  go 
thither,  and  this  is  the  symbol  of  the  journey.  A  wit- 
ness says  to  them,  "Return,"  and  the  journey  is  re- 
garded as  completed.  Each  of  the  two  presents  a  clod 
of  earth,  the  symbol  of  the  field.  Thus  the  trial  com- 
mences;^ then  the  judge  alone  hears  the  case.  Like 
all  primitive  peoples,  the  Romans  comprehended  well 
only  what  they  actually  saw ;  the  material  acts  served 
to  represent  to  them  the  right  that  could  not  be  seen. 

The  Formalism  of  Roman  Law. — The  Romans  scru- 
pulously respected  their  ancient  forms.  In  justice, 
as  in  religion,  they  obeyed  the.  letter  of  the  law, 
caring  nothing  for  its  sense.  For  them  every  form 
was  sacred  and  ought  to  be  strictly  applied.  In  cases 
before  the  courts  their  maxim  was :  "What  has  already 
been  pronounced  ought  to  be  the  law."  If  an  advo- 
cate made  a  mistake  in  one  word  in  reciting  the  for- 

*  Cicero  describes  this  juridical  comedy  which  was  still  in  force 
in  his  time. 


324  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

mula,  his  case  was  lost.  A  man  entered  a  case  against 
his  neighbor  for  having  cut  down  his  vines :  the  for- 
mula that  he  ought  to  use  contained  the  word  "arbor," 
he  replaced  it  with  the  word  'Vinea,"  and  could  not 
win  his  case. 

This  absolute  reverence  for  the  form  allowed  the 
Romans  some  strange  accommodations.  The  law  said 
that  if  a  father  sold  his  son  three  times,  the  son  should 
be  freed  from  the  power  of  the  father ;  when,  therefore, 
a  Roman  wished  to  emancipate  his  son,  he  sold  him 
three  times  in  succession,  and  this  comedy  of  sale  suf- 
ficed to  emancipate  him. 

The  law  required  that  before  beginning  war  a  herald 
should  be  sent  to  declare  it  at  the  frontier  of  the 
enemy.  When  Rome  wished  to  make  war  on  Pyrrhus, 
king  of  Epirus,  who  had  his  kingdom  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Adriatic,  they  were  much  embarrassed  to  execute 
this  formality.  They  hit  on  the  following:  a  subject 
of  Pyrrhus,  perhaps  a  deserter,  bought  a  field  in  Rome ; 
they  then  assumed  that  this  territory  had  become  ter- 
ritory of  Epirus,  and  the  herald  threw  his  javelin  on 
this  land  and  made  his  solemn  declaration.  Like  all 
other  immature  peoples,  the  Romans  believed  that  con- 
secrated formulas  had  a  magical  virtue. 

Jurisprudence — The  Law  of  the  Twelve  Tables  and 
the  laws  made  after  them  were  brief  and  incomplete. 
But  many  questions  presented  themselves  that  had  no 
law  for  their  solution.  In  these  embarrassing  cases  it 
was  the  custom  at  Rome  to  consult  certain  persons  who 
were  of  high  reputation  for  their  knowledge  of  ques- 
tions of  law.  These  were  men  of  eminence,  often  old 
consuls  or  pontiffs ;  they  gave  their  advice  in  writing, 


THE   ARTS   AND   SCIENCES    IN   ROME  325 

and  their  replies  were  called  the  Responses  of  the  Wise. 
Usually  these  responses  were  authoritative  according 
to  the  respect  had  for  the  sages.  The  emperor  Au- 
gustus went  further :  he  named  some  of  them  whose 
responses  should  have  the  force  of  law.  Thus  Law 
began  to  be  a  science  and  the  men  versed  in  law  for- 
mulated new  rules  which  became  obligatory.  This 
was  Jurisprudence. 

The  Praetor's  Edict — To  apply  the  sacred  rules  of 
law  a  supreme  magistrate  was  needed  at  Rome.  Only 
a  consul  or  a  praetor  could  direct  a  tribunal  and,  accord- 
ing to  the  Roman  expression,  "say  the  law."  The 
consuls  engaged  especially  with  the  army  ordinarily 
left  this  care  to  the  praetors. 

There  w^ere  always  at  Rome  at  least  two  praetors  as 
judges :  one^  adjudicated  matters  between  citizens  and 
was  called  the  praetor  of  the  city  (praetor  urbanus)  ;  the 
other  judged  cases  between  citizens  and  aliens  and 
was  called  praetor  of  the  aliens  (praetor  peregrinus), 
or,  more  exactly,  praetor  between  aliens  and  citizens. 
There  w^as  need  of  at  least  tw^o  tribunals,  since  an 
alien  could  not  be  admitted  to  the  tribunal  of  the  citi- 
zens. These  praetors,  thanks  to  their  absolute  power, 
adjusted  cases  according  to  their  sense  of  equity ;  the 
praetor  of  the  aliens  was  bound  by  no  law,  for  the  Ro- 
man laws  were  made  only  for  Roman  citizens.  And 
yet,  since  each  praetor  was  to  sit  and  judge  for  a  year, 
on  entering  upon  his  office  he  promulgated  a  decree 
in  which  he  indicated  the  rules  that  he  expected  to 
follow  in  his  tribunal ;  this  was  the  Praetor's  Edict. 
At  the  end  of  the  year,  when  the  praetor  left  his  office, 
his  ordinance  was  no  lonsfer  in  force,   and  his  sue- 


326  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

cesser  had  the  right  to  make  an  entirely  different  one. 
But  it  came  to  be  the  custom  for  each  praetor  to  pre- 
serve the  edicts  of  his  predecessors,  making  a  few 
changes  and  some  additions.  Thus  accumulated  for 
centuries  the  ordinances  of  the  magistrates.  At  last 
the  emperor  Hadrian  in  the  second  century  had  the 
Praetorian  Edict  codified  and  gave  it  the  force  of  law. 

Civil  Law  and  the  Law  of  Nations As  there  were 

two  separate  tribunals,  there  developed  two  systems 
of  rules,  two  different  laws.  The  rules  applied  to  the 
affairs  of  citizens  by  the  praetor  of  the  city  formed 
the  Civil  Law — that  is  to  say,  the  law  of  the  city. 
The  rules  followed  by  the  praetor  of  aliens  consti- 
tuted the  Law  of  Nations — that  is  to  say,  of  the  peo- 
ples (alien  to  Rome).  It  was  then  perceived  that  of 
these  two  laws  the  more  human,  the  more  sensible, 
the  simpler — in  a  word,  the  better,  was  the  law  of 
aliens.  The  law  of  citizens,  derived  from  the  su- 
perstitious and  strict  rules  of  the  old  Romans,  had 
preserved  from  this  rude  origin  troublesome  formu- 
las and  barbarous  regulations.  The  Law  of  Nations, 
on  the  contrary,  had  for  its  foundation  the  dealings 
of  merchants  and  of  men  established  in  Rome,  dealings 
that  were  free  from  every  formula,  from  every  national 
prejudice,  and  were  slowly  developed  and  tried  by  the 
experience  of  several  centuries.  And  so  it  may  be 
seen  how  contrary  to  reason  the  ancient  law  was. 
'^Strict  law  is  the  highest  injustice,"  is  a  Roman  prov- 
erb. The  praetors  of  the  city  set  themselves  to  cor- 
rect the  ancient  law  and  to  judge  according  to  equity 
or  justice.  They  came  gradually  to  apply  to  citizens 
the  same  rules  that  the  praetor  of  the  aliens  followed 


THE   ARTS   AND    SCIENCES    IN    ROME  327 

in  his  tribunal.  For  example,  the  Roman  law  or- 
dained that  only  relatives  on  the  male  side  should  be 
heirs ;  the  praetor  summoned  the  relatives  on  the  female 
side  also  to  participate  in  the  succession. 

The  old  law  required  that  a  man  to  become  a  pro- 
prietor must  perform  a  complicated  ceremony  of  sale ; 
the  praetor  recognized  that  it  was  sufficient  to  have 
paid  the  price  of  the  sale  and  to  be  in  possession  of  the 
property.  Thus  the  Law  of  Nations  invaded  and 
gradually  superseded  the  Civil  Law. 

"Written  Reason." — It  was  especially  under  the  em- 
perors that  the  new  Roman  law  took  its  form.  The 
Antonines  issued  many  ordinances  (edicts)  and  re- 
scripts (letters  in  which  the  emperor  replied  to  those 
who  consulted  him).  Jurisconsults  who  surrounded 
them  assisted  them  in  their  reforms.  Later,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  third  century,  under  the  bad  emperors 
as  under  the  good,  others  continued  to  state  new  rules 
and  to  rectify  the  old.  Papinian,  Ulpian,  Modestinus, 
and  Paullus  were  the  most  noted  of  these  lawyers ; 
their  works  definitively  fixed  the  Roman  law. 

This  law  of  the  third  century  has  little  resemblance 
to  the  old  Roman  law,  so  severe  on  the  weak.  The 
jurisconsults  adopt  the  ideas  of  the  Greek  philos- 
ophers, especially  of  the  Stoics.  They  consider  that 
all  men  have  the  right  of  liberty:  "By  the  law  of 
nature  all  men  are  born  free,"  which  is  to  say  that 
slavery  is  contrary  to  nature.  They  also  admit  that 
a  slave  could  claim  redress  even  against  his  master, 
and  that  the  master,  if  he  killed  his  slave,  should  be 
punished  as  a  murderer.  Likewise  they  protect  the 
child  against  the  tyranny  of  the  father. 


328  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

It  is  this  new  law  that  was  in  later  times  called 
Written  Reason.  In  fact,  it  is  a  philosophical  law  such 
as  reason  can  conceive  for  all  men.  And  so  there 
remains  no  longer  an  atom  of  the  strict  and  gross  law 
of  the  Twelve  Tables.  The  Roman  law  which  has  for 
a  long  time  governed  all  Europe,  and  which  today  is 
preserved  in  part  in  the  laws  of  several  European  states 
is  not  the  law  of  the  old  Romans.  It  is  constructed, 
on  the  contrary,  of  the  customs  of  all  the  peoples  of 
antiquity  and  the  maxims  of  Greek  philosophers  fused 
together  and  codified  in  the  course  of  centuries  by 
Roman  magistrates  and-jurisconsults. 


CHAPTER   XXVI 
THE  CHRISTIAN  RELIGION 

ORIGIN  OF  CHRISTIANITY 

The  Christ. — He  whom  the  Jews  were  expecting  as 
their  hberator  and  king,  the  Messiah,  appeared  in  Gal- 
ilee, a  small  province  of  the  North,  hardly  regarded  as 
Jewish,  and  in  a  humble  family  of  carpenters.  He 
was  called  Jesus,  but  his  Greek  disciples  called  him  the 
Christ  (the  anointed),  that  is  to  say,  the  king  conse- 
crated by  the  holy  oil.  He  was  also  called  the  Master, 
the  Lord,  and  the  Saviour.  The  religion  that  he  came 
to  found  is  that  we  now  possess.  We  all  know  his  life : 
it  is  the  model  of  every  Christian.  We  know  his  in- 
structions by  heart;  they  form  our  moral  law.  It  is 
sufficient,  then,  to  indicate  what  new  doctrines  he  dis- 
seminated in  the  world. 

Charity — Before  all,  Christ  commended  love. 
"Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart 
and  with  all  thy  mind  and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.  .  .  . 
On  these  two  commandments  hang  all  the  law  and  the 
prophets."  The  first  duty  is  to  love  others  and  to 
benefit  them.  When  God  will  judge  men,  he  will  set 
on  his  right  hand  those  who  have  fed  the  hungry,  given 
drink  to  those  who  were  thirsty,  and  have  clad  those 
that  were  naked.  To  those  who  would  follow  him  the 
Christ  said  at  the  beginning :  "Go,  .  .  .  sell  all  that  ye 
have  and  give  to  the  poor." 

329 


330  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

For  the  ancients  the  good  man  was  the  noble,  the 
rich,  the  brave.  Since  the  time  of  Christ  the  word  has 
changed  its  sense :  the  good  man  is  he  who  loves  others. 
Doing  good  is  loving  others  and  seeking  to  be  of  ser- 
vice to  them.  Charity  (the  Latin  name  of  love)  from 
that  time  has  been  the  cardinal  virtue.  Charitable  be- 
comes synonymous  with  beneficent.  To  the  old  doc- 
trine of  vengeance  the  Christ  formally  opposes  his 
doctrine  of  charity.  "Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said, 
An  eye  for  an  eye  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth ;  but  I  say 
unto  you  .  .  .  whosoever  shall  smite  thee  on  thy  right 
cheek,  turn  to  him  the  other  also.  ...  Ye  have  heard 
that  it  hath  been  said.  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor 
and  hate  thine  enemy;  but  I  say  unto  you  love  your 
enemies,  do  good  to  them  that  hate  you,  and  pray  for 
them  that  persecute  you,  .  .  .  that  ye  may  be  the  chil- 
dren of  your  Father  who  is  in  heaven,  who  maketh 
his  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  the  good,  and  sendeth 
rain  on  the  just  and  the  unjust."  He  himself  on  the 
cross  prayed  for  his  executioners,  "Father,  forgive 
them,  for  they  know  not  what  they  do." 

Equality. — The  Christ  loved  all  men;  he  died  not 
for  one  people  only,  but  for  all  humanity.  He  never 
made  a  difference  between  men;  all  are  equal  before 
God.  The  ancient  religions,  even  the  Jewish,  were 
religions  of  peoples  who  kept  them  with  jealous  care, 
as  a  treasure,  without  wishing  to  communicate  them  to 
other  peoples.  Christ  said  to  his  disciples,  "Go,  and 
teach  all  nations."  And  the  apostle  Paul  thus  formu- 
lated the  doctrine  of  Christian  equality :  "There  is 
neither  Greek  nor  Jew,  circumcision  nor  uncircum- 
cision,  barbarian,  bond  nor  free."    Two  centuries  later 


THE   CHRISTIAN   RELIGION  331 

Tertullian,  a  Christian  writer,  said,  "The  world  is  a 
repubhc,  the  common  land  of  the  human  race." 

Poverty  and  Humility — The  ancients  thought  that 
riches  ennobled  a  man  and  they  regarded  pride  as  a 
worthy  sentiment.  ''Blessed  are  the  poor,"  said 
Christ,  "for  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  He 
that  would  not  renounce  all  that  he  had  could  not  be 
his  disciple.  He  himself  went  from  city  to  city,  pos- 
sessing nothing,  and  when  his  disciples  were  preoc- 
cupied with  the  future,  he  said,  "Be  not  anxious  for 
what  ye  shall  eat,  nor  for  what  ye  shall  put  on.  Be- 
hold the  birds  of  the  heaven,  they  sow  not  neither  do 
they  reap,  yet  your  heavenly  Father  feedeth  them." 

The  Christian  was  to  disdain  riches,  and  more  yet, 
worldly  honors.  One  day  when  his  disciples  were  dis- 
puting who  should  have  the  highest  rank  in  heaven, 
he  said,  "He  that  is  greatest  among  you  shall  be 
your  servant."  "Whosoever  exalteth  himself  shall  be 
abased,  and  he  that  humbleth  himself  shall  be  exalted." 
Till  our  day  the  successor  of  Saint  Peter  calls  himself 
"Servant  of  the  servants  of  God."  Christ  drew  to 
himself  by  preference  the  poor,  the  sick,  women,  chil- 
dren,— in  a  word,  the  weak  and  the  helpless.  He  took 
all  his  disciples  from  among  the  populace  and  bade 
them  be  "meek  and  lowly  of  heart." 

The  Kingdom  of  God. — Christ  said  that  he  had  come 
to  the  earth  to  found  the  kingdom  of  God.  His  ene- 
mies believed  that  he  wished  to  be  a  king,  and  when 
he  was  crucified,  they  placed  this  inscription  on  his 
cross,  "Jesus  of  Nazareth,  king  of  the  Jews."  This 
was  a  gross  mistake.  Christ  himself  had  declared, 
"My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world."     He  did  not  come 


332  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

to  overturn  governments  nor  to  reform  society.  T(> 
him  who  asked  if  he  should  pay  the  Roman  tax,  he 
rephed,  ''Render  unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are 
Caesar's,  and  to  God  the  things  that  are  God's."  And 
so  the  Christian  accepted  what  he  found  estabhshed  and 
himself  worked  to  perfect  it,  not  to  remodel  society. 
To  make  himself  pleasing  to  God  and  worthy  of  his 
kingdom  it  was  not  necessary  to  offer  him  sacrifices  or 
to  observe  minute  formulas  as  the  pagans  did :  "True 
worshippers  shall  worship  the  Father  in  spirit  and 
truth."  Their  moral  law  is  contained  in  this  word 
of  Christ :  "Be  ye  therefore  perfect  even  as  your 
Father  which  is  in  heaven  is  perfect." 

THE  FIRST  CENTURIES  OF  THE  CHURCH 

Disciples  and  Apostles. — The  twelve  disciples  who 
associated  with  Christ  received  from  him  the  mission 
to  preach  his  doctrine  to  all  peoples.  From  that  time 
they  were  called  Apostles.  The  majority  of  them 
lived  in  Jerusalem  and  preached  in  Judsea;  the  first 
Christians  were  still  Jews.  It  was  Saul,  a  new  con- 
vert, who  carried  Christianity  to  the  other  peoples  of 
the  Orient.  Paul  (for  he  took  this  name)  spent  his 
life  visiting  the  Greek  cities  of  Asia,  Greece,  and  Mace- 
donia, inviting  to  the  new  religion  not  only  the  Jews, 
but  also  and  especially  the  Gentiles :  "You  were  once 
without  Christ,"  said  he  to  them,  "strangers  to  the 
covenant  and  to  the  promises;  but  you  have  been 
brought  nigh  by  the  blood  of  Christ,  for  it  is  he  who 
of  two  peoples  hath  made  both  one."  From  this  time 
it  was  no  longer  necessary  to  be  a  Jew  if  one  would 


THE   CHRISTIAN    RELIGION  333 

h'jcome  a  Christian.  The  other  nations,  disregarded 
by  the  law  of  Moses,  are  brought  near  by  the  law  of 
Christ.  This  fusion  was  the  work  of  St.  Paul,  also 
called  the  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles. 

The  religion  of  Christ  spread  very  slowly,  as  he  him- 
self had  announced :  "The  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like 
a  grain  of  mustard-seed  .  .  .  which  is  the  least  of  all 
seeds;  but  when  it  is  grown,  it  is  the  greatest  among 
herbs  .  .  .  and  the  birds  of  the  air  lodge  under  its 
branches." 

The  Church. — In  every  city  where  Christians  were 
found  they  assembled  to  pray  together,  to  sing  the 
praises  of  God,  and  to  celebrate  the  mystery  of  the 
Lord's  Supper.  Their  meeting  w^as  called  Ecclesia 
(assembly).  Usually  the  Christians  of  the  same  as- 
sembly regarded  themselves  as  brothers;  they  contrib- 
uted of  their  property  to  support  the  widows,  the 
poor,  and  the  sick.  The  most  eminent  directed  the 
community  and  celebrated  the  religious  ceremonies. 
These  were  the  Priests  (their  name  signifies  ''elders"). 
Others  were  charged  with  the  administration  of  the 
goods  of  the  community,  and  were  called  Deacons 
(servants).  Besides  these  officers,  there  was  in  each 
city  a  supreme  head — the  Bishop  (overseer). 

Later  the  functions  of  the  church  became  so  exact- 
ing that  the  body  of  Christians  was  divided  into  two 
classes  of  people :  the  clergy,  who  were  the  officials  of 
the  community ;  the  rest,  the  faithful,  who  were  termed 
the  laity. 

Each  city  had  its  independent  church ;  thus  they 
spoke  of  the  church  of  Antioch,  of  Corinth,  of  Rome ; 
and  yet  they  all  formed  but  one  church,  the  church  of 


334  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Christ,  in  which  all  were  united  in  one  faith.  The 
universal  or  Catholic  faith  was  regarded  as  the  only 
correct  body  of  belief;  all  conflicting  opinions  (the 
heresies)  were  condemned  as  errors. 

The  Sacred  Books. — The  sacred  scripture  of  the  Jews, 
the  Old  Testament,  remained  sacred  for  the  Christians, 
but  they  had  other  sacred  books  which  the  church  had 
brought  into  one  structure  (the  New  Testament).  The 
four  Gospels  recount  the  life  of  Christ  and  the  "good 
news"  of  salvation  which  he  brought.  The  Acts  of 
the  Apostles  describes  how  the  gospel  was  disseminated 
in  the  world.  The  Epistles  are  the  letters  addressed 
by  the  apostles  to  the  Christians  of  the  first  century. 
The  Apocalypse  (Revelation)  is  the  revelation  made 
through  St.  John  to  the  seven  churches  of  Asia.  Many 
other  pseudo-sacred  books  were  current  among  the 
Christians,  but  the  church  has  rejected  all  of  these,  and 
has  termed  them  apocryphal. 

The  Persecutions — The  Christian  religion  was  per- 
secuted from  its  birth.  Its  first  enemies  were  the  Jews, 
who  forced  the  Roman  governor  of  Judaea  to  crucify 
Christ;  who  stoned  St.  Stepl^en,  the  first  martyr,  and 
so  set  themselves  against  St.  Paul  that  they  almost 
compassed  his  death. 

Then  came  the  persecution  by  the  Pagans.  The 
Romans  tolerated  all  the  religions  of  the  East  because 
the  devotees  of  Osiris,  of  Mithra,  and  o£  the  Good 
Goddess  recognized  at  the  same  time  the  Roman  gods. 
But  the  Christians,  worshippers  of  the  living  God, 
scorned  the  petty  divinities  of  antiquity.  More  serious 
still  in  the  eyes  of  the  Romans,  they  refused  to  adore 
the  emperor  as  a  god  and  to  burn  incense  on  the  altar 


THE   CHRISTIAN    RELIGION  335 

of  the  goddess  Roma.  Several  emperors  promulgated 
edicts  against  the  Christians,  bidding  the  governors 
arrest  them  and  put  them  to  death.  A  letter  of  Pliny 
the  Younger,  then  governor  in  Asia,  to  the  emperor 
Trajan,  shows  the  procedure  against  them.  *'Up  to 
this  time,  regarding  the  people  who  have  been  de- 
nounced as  Christians,  I  have  always  operated  as  fol- 
lows: I  asked  them  if  they  were  Christians;  if  they 
confessed  it,  I  put  the  question  to  them  a  second  time, 
and  then  a  third  time,  threatening  them  with  the  pen- 
alty of  death.  When  they  persisted,  I  had  them  put 
to  death,  convinced  that,  whatever  their  fault  that  they 
avowed,  their  disobedience  and  their  resolute  obstinacy 
merited  punishment.  Many  who  have  been  denounced 
in  anonymous  writings  have  denied  that  they  were 
Christians,  have  repeated  a  prayer  that  I  pronounced 
before  them,  have  offered  wine  and  incense  to  your 
statue,  which  I  had  set  forth  for  this  purpose  to- 
gether with  the  statues  of  the  gods,  and  have  even  re- 
viled the  name  of  Christ.  All  these  are  things  which 
it  is  not  possible  to  compel  any  true  Christians  to  do. 
Others  have  confessed  that  they  were  Christians,  but 
they  affirm  that  their  crime  and  their  error  consisted 
only  in  assembling  on  certain  days  before  sunrise 
to  adore  Christ  as  God,  to  sing  together  in  his 
honor,  and  to  bind  themselves  by  oath  to  commit  no 
crime,  to  perpetrate  no  theft,  murder,  adultery,  nor  to 
violate  their  word.  I  have  believed  it  necessary  in 
order  to  secure  the  truth  to  put  to  the  torture  two 
female  slaves  whom  they  called  deaconesses;  but  I 
have  discovered  only  an  absurd  and  exaggerated  su- 
perstition." 


336  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

The  Roman  government  was  a  persecutor/  but  the 
populace  were  severer  yet.  They  could  not  endure 
these  people  who  worshipped  another  god  than  theirs 
and  contemned  their  deities.  Whenever  famine  or  epi- 
demic occurred,  the  well-known  cry  was  heard,  *'To 
the  lions  with  the  Christians!"  The  people  forced  the 
magistrates  to  hunt  and  persecute  the  Christians. 

The  Martyrs — For  the  two  centuries  and  a  half  that 
the  Christians  were  persecuted,  throughout  the  empire 
there  were  thousands  of  victims,  of  every  age,  sex,  and 
condition.  Roman  citizens,  like  St.  Paul,  were  be- 
headed; the  others  were  crucified,  burned,  most  often 
sent  to  the  beasts  in  the  amphitheatre.  If  they  were 
allowed  to  escape  with  their  lives,  they  were  set  at 
forced  labor  in  the  mines.  Sometimes  torture  was 
aggravated  by  every  sort  of  invention.  In  the  great 
execution  at  Lyons,  in  177,  the  Christians,  after  being 
tortured  and  confined  in  narrow  prison  quarters,  were 
brought  to  the  arena.  The  beasts  mutilated  without 
killing  them.  They  were  then  seated  in  iron  chairs 
heated  red  by  fire.  Blandina,  a  young  slave,  who  sur- 
vived all  these  torments  was  bound  with  cords  and 
exposed  to  the  fury  of  a  bull.  The  Christians  joyfully 
suffered  these  persecutions  which  gave  them  entrance 
to  heaven.  The  occasion  presented  an  opportunity 
for  rendering  public  testimony  to  Christ.  And  so  they 
did  not  call  themselves  victims,  but  martyrs  (wit- 
nesses) ;  their  torture  was  a  testimony.  They  com- 
pared it  to  the  combat  of  the  Olympian  games;  like 
the  victor  in  the  athletic  contests,  they  spoke  of  the 

^  The  church  counted  ten  persecutions,  the  first  under  Nero, 
the  last  under  Diocletian. 


THE   CHRISTIAN   RELIGION  337 

palm  or  the  crown.     Even  now  the  festal  day  of  a 
martyr  is  the  day  of  his  death. 

Frequently  a  Christian  who  w^as  present  at  the  per- 
secution would  draft  a  written  account  of  the  martyr- 
dom— he  related  the  arrest,  the  examination,  the  tor- 
tures, and  the  death.  These  brief  accounts,  filled  with 
edifying  details,  were  called  The  Acts  of  the  Martyrs. 
They  were  circulated  in  the  remotest  communities; 
from  one  end  of  the  empire  to  the  other  they  published 
the  glory  of  the  martyrs  and  excited  a  desire  to  imi- 
tate them.  Thousands  of  the  faithful,  seized  by  a 
thirst  for  martyrdom,  pressed  forward  to  incriminate 
themselves  and  to  demand  condemnation.  One  day  a 
governor  of  Asia  had  decreed  persecutions  against 
some  Christians:  all  the  Christians  of  the  city  pre- 
sented themselves  in  his  tribunal  and  demanded  to  be 
persecuted.  The  governor,  exasperated,  had  some  of 
them  executed  and  sent  away  the  others.  *' Begone, 
you  wretches !  If  you  are  so  bent  on  death,  you  have 
precipices  and  ropes."  Some  of  the  faithful,  to  be 
surer  of  torture,  entered  the  temples  and  threw  down 
the  idols  of  the  gods.  It  was  several  times  necessary 
for  even  the  church  to  prohibit  the  solicitation  of 
martyrdom. 

The  Catacombs — The  ancient  custom  of  burning  the 
dead  was  repugnant  to  the  Christians.  Like  the  Jews, 
they  interred  their  dead  wrapped  with  a  shroud  in  a 
sarcophagus.  Cemeteries^  were  therefore  required. 
At  Rome  where  land  was  very  high  in  price  the  Chris- 
tians went  below  ground,  and  in  the  brittle  tufa  on 
which  Rome  was  built  may  be  seen  long  galleries  and 
^  The  word  is  Greek  and  signifies  place  of  repose. 


338  ANCIENT   CIVILIZ/yTION 

subterranean  chambers.  There,  in  niches  excavated 
along  the  passages,  they  laid  the  bodies  of  their  dead. 
As  each  generation  excavated  new  galleries,  there  was 
formed  at  length  a  subterranean  city,  called  the  Cata- 
combs ("to  the  tombs").  There  were  similar  cata- 
combs in  several  cities — Naples,  Milan,  Alexandria,  but 
the  most  celebrated  were  those  in  Rome.  These  have 
been  investigated  in  our  day  and  thousands  of  Christian 
tombs  and  inscriptions  recovered.  The  discovery  of 
this  subterranean  world  gave  birth  to  a  new  depart- 
ment of  historical  science — Christian  Epigraphy  and 
Archaeology. 

The  sepulchral  halls  of  the  catacombs  do  not  re- 
semble those  of  the  Egyptians  or  those  of  the  Etrus- 
cans ;  they  are  bare  and  severe.  The  Christians  knew 
that  a  corpse  had  no  bodily  wants  and  so  they  did  hot 
adorn  the  tombs.  The  most  important  haUs  are  deco- 
rated with  very  simple  ornaments  and  paintings  which 
almost  always  represent  the  same  scenes.  The  most 
common  subjects  are  the  faithful  in  prayer,  and  the 
Good  Shepherd,  symbolical  of  Christ.  Some  of  these 
halls  were  like  chapels.  In  them  were,  interred  the 
bodies  of  the  holy  martyrs  and  the  faithful  who  wished 
to  lie  near  them ;  every  year  Christians  came  here  to  cel- 
ebrate the  mysteries.  During  the  persecutions  of  the 
third  century  the  Christians  of  Rome  often  took  refuge 
in  these  subterranean  chapels  to  hold  their  services  of 
worship,  or  to  escape  from  pursuit.  The  Christians 
could  feel  safe  in  this  bewildering  labyrinth  of  gal- 
leries whose  entrance  was  usually  marked  by  a  pagan 
tomb. 


THE  CHRISTIAN   RELIGION  339 


THE  MONKS  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY 

The  Solitaries. — It  was  an  idea  current  among  Chris- 
tians, especially  in  the  East,  that  one  could  not  become 
a  perfect  Christian  by  remaining  in  the  midst  of  other 
men.  Christ  himself  had  said,  "If  any  man  come  to  me 
and  hate  not  his  father,  and  mother,  and  wife,  and 
children,  and  brethren,  and  sisters  ...  he  cannot  be 
my  disciple."  The  faithful  man  or  woman  who  thus 
withdrew  from  the  world  to  work  out  his  salvation  the 
more  surely,  was  termed  an  Anchorite  (the  man  who 
is  set  apart),  or  a  Monk  (solitary).  This  custom  be- 
gan in  the  East  in  the  middle  of  the  third  century. 
The  first  anchorites  established  themselves  in  the 
deserts  and  the  ruins  of  the  district  of  Thebes  in  Upper 
Egypt,  which  remained  the  holy  land  of  the  solitaries. 

Paul  (235-340),  the  oldest  of  the  monks,  lived  to 
his  ninetieth  year  in  a  grotto  near  a  spring  and  a  palm- 
tree  which  furnished  him  with  food  and  clothing.  The 
model  of  the  monks  was  St.  Anthony.^  At  the  age  of 
twenty  he  heard  read  one  day  the  text  of  the  gospel, 
'Tf  thou  wilt  be  perfect,  sell  all  thy  goods  and  give  to 
the  poor."  He  was  fine  looking,  noble,  and  rich,  hav- 
ing received  an  inheritance  from  his  parents.  He  sold 
all  his  property,  distributed  it  in  alms  and  buried  him- 
self in  the  desert  of  Egypt.  He  first  betook  himself  to 
an  empty  tomb,  then  to  the  ruins  of  a  fortress ;  he  was 
clad  in  a  hair-shirt,  had  for  food  only  the  bread  that 
was  brought  to  him  every  six  months,  fasted,  starved 

*  See  his  biography  in  the  "  Lives  of  the  Fathers  of  the  Desert,'* 
by  Rufinus. 


340  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

himself,  prayed  day  and  night.  Often  sunrise  found 
him  still  in  prayer.  "O  sun,"  cried  he,  ''why  hast  thou 
risen  and  prevented  my  contemplating  the  true  light?" 
He  felt  himself  surrounded  by  demons,  who,  under 
every  form,  sought  to  distract  him  from  his  religious 
thoughts.  When  he  became  old  and  revered  by  all 
Egypt,  he  returned  to  Alexandria  for  a  day  to  preach 
against  the  Arian  heretics,  but  soon  repaired  to  the 
desert  again.  They  besought  him  to  remain :  he  re- 
plied, "The  fishes  die  on  land,  the  monks  waste  away 
in  the  city;  we  return  to  our  mountains  like  the  fish 
to  the  water." 

Women  also  became  solitaries.  Alexandra,  one  of 
these,  shut  herself  in  an  empty  tomb  and  lived  there 
for  ten  years  without  leaving  it  to  see  anybody. 

Asceticism. — These  men  who  had  withdrawal  to  the 
desert  to  escape  the  world  thought  that  everything 
that  came  from  the  world  turned  the  soul  from  God 
and  placed  it  in  the  peril  of  losing  salvation.  The 
Christian  ought  to  belong  entirely  to  God;  he  should 
forget  everything  behind  him.  ''Do  you  not  know," 
said  St.  Nilus  later,  "that  it  is  a  trap  of  Satan  to  be  too 
much  attached  to  one's  family?"  The  monk  Poemen 
had  withdrawn  to  the  desert  with  his  brothers,  and 
their  mother  came  to  visit  them.  As  they  refused  to 
appear,  she  waited  a  little  until  they  were  going  to  the 
church ;  but  on  seeing  her,  they  fled  and  would  not 
consent  to  speak  to  her  unless  they  were  concealed. 
She  asked  to  see  them,  but  they  consoled  her  by  say- 
ing, "You  will  see  us  in  the  other  world." 

But  the  world  is  not  the  only  danger  for  the  monk. 
Every  man  carried  about  with  himself  an  enemy  from 


THE   CHRISTIAN   RELIGION  341 

whom  he  could  not  deliver  himself  as  he  had  delivered 
himself  from  the  world — that  is,  his  own  body.  The 
body  prevented  the  soul  from  rising  to  God  and  drew 
it  to  worldly  pleasures  that  came  from  the  devil.  And 
so  the  solitaries  applied  themselves  to  overcoming  the 
body  by  refusing  to  it  everything  that  it  loved.  They 
subsisted  only  on  bread  and  water ;  many  ate  but  twice 
a  week,  some  went  to  the  mountains  to  cut  herbs  which 
they  ate  raw.  They  dwelt  in  grottoes,  ruins,  and 
tombs,  lying  on  the  earth  or  on  a  mat  of  rushes.  The 
most  zealous  of  them  added  other  tortures  to  mortify, 
or  kill,  the  body.  St.  Pachomius  for  fifteen  years 
slept  only  in  an  erect  position,  leaning  against  a  wall. 
Macarius  remained  six  months  in  a  morass,  the  prey 
of  mosquitoes  ''whose  stings  would  have  penetrated  the 
hide  of  a  wild  boar."  The  most  noted  of  these  monks 
was  St.  Simeon,  surnamed  Stylites  (the  man  of  the 
column).  For  forty  years  he  lived  in  the  desert  of 
Arabia  on  the  summit  of  a  column,  exposed  to  the 
sun  and  the  rain,  compelling  himself  to  stay  in  one 
position  for  a  whole  day ;  the  faithful  flocked  from  afar 
to  behold  him ;  he  gave  them  audience  from  the  top  of 
his  column,  bidding  creditors  free  their  debtors,  and 
masters  liberate  their  slaves;  he  even  sent  reproaches 
to  ministers  and  counsellors  of  the  emperor.  This 
form  of  life  was  called  Asceticism  (exercise). 

The  Cenobites — The  solitaries  who  lived  in  the  same 
desert  drew  together  and  adopted  a  common  life  for 
the  practice  of  their  austerities.  About  St.  Anthony 
were  already  assembled  many  anchorites  who  gave 
him  their  obedience.  St.  Pachomius  (272-348)  in  this 
way  assembled  3,000.     Their   establishment  was  at 


342  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Tabenna,  near  the  first  cataract  of  the  Nile.  He 
founded  many  other  similar  communities,  either  of 
men  or  women.  In  256  a  traveller  said  he  had  seen 
in  a  single  city  of  Egypt  10,000  monks  and  20,000 
vowed  to  a  religious  life.  There  were  more  of  them 
in  Syria,  in  Palestine,  in  all  the  Orient.  The  monks 
thus  united  in  communities  became  Cenobites  (people 
who  live  in  common).  They  chose  a  chief,  the  abbot 
(the  word  signifies  in  Syriac  "father"),  and  they  im- 
plicitly obeyed  him.  Cassian  relates  that  in  one  com- 
munity in  Egypt  he  had  seen  the  abbot  before  the  whole 
refectory  give  a  cenobite  a  violent  blow  on  the  head  to 
try  his  obedience. 

The  primitive  monks  renounced  all  property  and 
family  relations;  the  cenobites  surrendered  also  their 
will.  On  entering  the  community  they  engaged  to 
possess  nothing,  not  to  marry,  and  to  obey.  *'The 
monks,"  says  St.  Basil,  "live  a  spiritual  life  like  the 
angels."  The  first  union  among  the  cenobites  was 
the  construction  of  houses  in  close  proximity.  Later 
each  community  built  a  monastery,  a  great  edifice, 
where  each  monk  had  his  cell.  A  Christian  compares 
these  cells  "to  a  hive  of  bees  where  each  has  in  his 
hands  the  wax  of  work,  in  his  mouth  the  honey  of 
psalms  and  prayers."  These  great  houses  needed  a 
written  constitution ;  this  was  the  Monastic  Rule.  St. 
Pachomius  was  the  first  to  prepare  one.  St.  Basil 
wrote  another  that  was  adopted  by  almost  all  the 
monasteries  of  the  Orient. 


CHAPTER   XXVII 
THE    LATER    EMPIRE 

THE  REVOLUTIONS   OF  THE  THIRD 
CENTURY 

Military  Anarchy. — After  the  reigns  of  the  Anto- 
nines  the  civil  wars  commenced.  There  were  in  the 
empire,  beside  the  praetorian  guard  in  Rome,  several 
great  armies  on  the  Rhine,  on  the  Danube,  in  the  East, 
and  in  England.  Each  aimed  to  make  its  general  em- 
peror. Ordinarily  the  rivals  fought  it  out  until  there 
was  but  one  left;  this  one  then  governed  for  a  few 
years,  after  which  he  was  assassinated,^  or  if,  by 
chance,  he  could  transmit  his  power  to  his  son,  the 
soldiers  revolted  against  the  son  and  the  war  recom- 
menced. The  following,  for  example,  is  what  oc- 
curred in  193.  The  praetorians  had  massacred  the 
emperor  Pertinax,  and  the  army  conceived  the  notion 
of  putting  up  the  empire  at  auction;  two  purchasers 
presented  themselves,  Sulpicius  offering  each  soldier 
$1,000  and  Didius  more  than  $1,200.  The  praetorians 
brought  the  latter  to  the  Senate  and  had  him  named 
emperor;  later,  when  he  did  not  pay  them,  they  mur- 
dered him.  At  the  same  time  the  great  armies  of 
Britain,  Illyricum,  and  Syria  proclaimed  each  its  own 

*  Of  the  forty-five  emperors  from  the  first  to  the  third  cen- 
tury, twenty-nine  died  by  assassination. 

343 


344  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

general  as  emperor  and  the  three  rivals  marched 
on  Rome.  The  Illyrian  legions  arrived  first,  and  their 
general  Septimius  Severus  was  named  emperor  by  the 
Senate.  Then  commenced  two  sanguinary  wars,  the 
one  against  the  legions  of  Syria,  and  the  other  against 
the  legions  of  Britain.  At  the  end  of  two  years  the 
emperor  was  victorious.  It  is  he  who  states  his  policy 
as  follows,  "My  son,  content  the  soldiers  and  you  may 
despise  the  rest."  For  a  century  there  was  no  other 
form  of  government  than  the  will  of  the  soldiers.  They 
killed  the  emperors  who  displeased  them  and  replaced 
them  by  their  favorites. 

Strange  emperors,  therefore,  occupied  the  throne: 
Elagabalus,  a  Syrian  priest,  who  garbed  himself  as  a 
woman  and  had  his  mother  assemble  a  senate  of 
women;  Maximin,  a  soldier  of  fortune,  a  rough  and 
bloodthirsty  giant,  who  ate,  it  was  said,  thirty  pounds 
of  food  and  drank  twenty-one  quarts  of  wine  a  day. 
Once  there  were  twenty  emperors  at  the  same  time, 
each  in  a  corner  of  the  empire  (260-278).  These  have 
been  called  the  Thirty  Tyrants. 

The  Cult  of  Mithra — This  century  of  wars  is  also 
a  century  of  superstitions.  The  deities  of  the  Orient, 
Isis,  Osiris,  the  Great  Mother,  have  their  devotees 
everywhere.  But,  more  than  all  the  others,  Mithra,  a 
Persian  god,  becomes  the  universal  god  of  the  empire. 
Mithra  is  no  other  than  the  sun.  The  monuments  in 
his  honor  that  are  found  in  all  parts  of  the  empire  rep- 
resent him  slaughtering  a  bull,  with  this  inscription : 
"To  the  unconquerable  sun,  to  the  god  Mithra."  His 
cult  is  complicated,  sometimes  similar  to  the  Christian 
worship ;  there  are  a  baptism,  sacred  feasts,  an  anoint- 


THE  LATER   EMPIRE  345 

ing,  penances,  and  chapels.  To  be  admitted  to  this 
one  must  pass  through  an  initiatory  ceremony,  through 
fasting  and  certain  fearful  tests. 

At  the  end  of  the  third  century  the  religion  of  Mithra 
was  the  official  religion  of  the  empire.  The  Invincible 
God  was  the  god  of  the  emperors ;  he  had  his  chapels 
everywhere  in  the  form  of  grottoes  with  altars  and 
bas-reliefs ;  in  Rome,  even,  he  had  a  magnificent  temple 
erected  by  the  emperor  Aurelian. 

The  Taurobolia — One  of  the  most  urgent  needs  of 
this  time  was  reconciliation  with  the  deity;  and  so 
ceremonies  of  purification  were  invented. 

The  most  striking  of  these  was  the  Taurobolia.  The 
devotee,  clad  in  a  white  robe  with  ornaments  of  gold, 
takes  his  place  in  the  bottom  of  a  ditch  which  is  cov- 
ered by  a  platform  pierced  with  holes.  A  bull  is  led 
over  this  platform,  the  priest  kills  him  and  his  blood 
runs  through  the  holes  of  the  platform  upon  the  gar- 
ments, the  face,  and  the  hair  of  the  worshipper.  It  was 
believed  that  this  ''baptism  of  blood"  purified  one  of  all 
sins.  He  who  had  received  it  was  born  to  a  new  life ; 
he  came  forth  from  the  ditch  hideous  to  look  upon,  but 
happy  and  envied. 

Confusion  of  Religions. — In  the  century  that  preceded 
the  victory  of  Christianity,  all  religions  fell  into  con- 
fusion. The  sun  was  adored  at  once  under  many 
names  (Sol,  Helios,  Baal,  Elagabal,  and  Mithra).  All 
the  cults  imitated  one  another  and  sometimes  copied 
Christian  forms.  Even  the  life  of  Christ  was  copied. 
The  Asiatic  philosopher,  ApoUonius  of  Tyana,  w^ho 
lived  in  the  first  century  (3-96),  became  in  legend  a 
kind  of  prophet,  son  of  a  god,  who  went  about  sur- 


346  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

rounded  by  his  disciples,  expelling  demons,  curing 
sicknesses,  raising  the  dead.  He  had  come,  it  was 
said,  to  reform  the  doctrine  of  Pythagoras  and  Plato. 
In  the  third  century  an  empress  had  the  life  of  Apollo- 
nius  of  Tyana  written,  to  be,  as  it  were,  a  Pythagorean 
gospel  opposed  to  the  gospel  of  Christ.  The  most 
remarkable  example  of  this  confusion  in  religion  was 
given  by  Alexander  Severus,  a  devout  emperor,  mild 
and  conscientious :  he  had  in  his  palace  a  chapel  where 
he  adored  the  benefactors  of  humanity — Abraham, 
Orpheus,  Jesus,  and  Apollonius  of  Tyana. 

THE   GOVERNMENT   OF  THE   LATER 
EMPIRE 

Reforms  of  Diocletian  and  Constantine After  a  cen- 
tury of  civil  wars  emperors  were  found  who  were  able 
to  stop  the  anarchy.  They  were  men  of  the  people, 
rude  and  active,  soldiers  of  fortune  rising  from  one 
grade  to  another  to  become  generals-in-chief,  and  then 
emperors.  Almost  all  arose  in  the  semi-barbarous 
provinces  of  the  Danube  and  of  lUyria;  some  in  their 
infancy  had  been  shepherds  or  peasants.  They  had 
the  simple  manners  of  the  old  Roman  generals.  When 
the  envoys  of  the  king  of  Persia  asked  to  see  the 
emperor  Probus,  they  found  a  bald  old  man  clad  in 
a  linen  cassock,  lying  on  the  ground,  who  ate  peas 
and  bacon.  It  was  the  story  of  Curius  Dentatus  re- 
peated after  five  centuries. 

Severe  with  their  soldiers,  these  emperors  reestab- 
lished discipline  in  the  army,  and  then  order  in  the 
empire.     But    a    change    had    become    necessary.     A 


THE   LATER   EMPIRE  347 

single  man  was  no  longer  adequate  to  the  govern- 
ment and  defence  of  this  immense  territory;  and  so 
from  this  time  each  emperor  took  from  among  his 
relatives  or  his  friends  two  or  three  collaborators, 
each  charged  with  a  part  of  the  empire.  Usually 
their  title  was  that  of  Caesar,  but  sometimes  there  were 
two  equal  emperors,  and  both  had  the  title  of  Augus- 
tus. When  the  emperor  died,  one  of  the  Caesars 
succeeded  him ;  it  was  no  longer  possible  for  the  army 
to  create  emperors.  The  provinces  were  too  great, 
and  Diocletian  divided  them.  The  praetorians  of 
Rome  being  dangerous,  Diocletian  replaced  them  with 
two  legions.  The  Occident  was  in  ruins  and  depop- 
ulated and  hence  the  Orient  had  become  the  important 
part  of  the  empire;  Diocletian,  therefore,  abandoned 
Rome  and  established  his  capital  at  Nicomedia  in  Asia 
Minor.^  Constantine  did  more  and  founded  a  new 
Rome  in  the  East — Constantinople.    ^- 

Constantinople. — On  a  promontory  where  Europe  is 
separated  .from  Asia  only  by  the  narrow  channel  of 
the  Bosporus,  in  a  country  of  vineyards  and  rich 
harvests,  under  a  beautiful  sky,  Greek  colonists  had 
founded  the  town  of  Byzantium.  The  hills  of  the 
vicinity  made  the  place  easily  defensible;  its  port,  the 
Golden  Horn,  one  of  the  best  in  the  world,  could 
shelter  1,200  ships,  and  a  chain  of  820  feet  in  length 
was  all  that  was  necessary  to  exclude  a  hostile  fleet. 
This  was  the  site  of  Constantine's  new  city,  Con- 
stantinople (the  city  of  Constantine). 

Around  the  city  were  strong  walls;  two  public 
squares  surrounded  with  porticos  were  constructed;  a 
'  Other  considerations  also  led  to  the  change  of  capital. — Ed. 


348  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

palace  was  erected,  a  circus,  theatres,  aqueducts,  baths, 
temples,  and  a  Christian  church.  To  ornament  his 
city  Constantine  transferred  from  other  cities  the  most 
celebrated  statues  and  bas-reliefs.  To  furnish  it  with 
population  he  forced  the  people  of  the  neighboring 
towns  to  remove  to  it,  and  offered  rewards  and  honors 
to  the  great  families  who  would  come  hither  to  make 
their  home.  He  established,  as  in  Rome,  distributions 
of  grain,  of  wine,  of  oil,  and  provided  a  continuous 
round  of  shows.  This  was  one  of  those  rapid  trans- 
formations, almost  fantastic,  in  which  the  Orient  de- 
lights. The  task  began  the  4th  of  November,  326 ;  on 
the  nth  of  May,  330,  the  city  was  dedicated.  But 
it  was  a  permanent  creation.  For  ten  centuries  Con- 
stantinople resisted  invasions,  preserving  always  in 
the  ruins  of  the  empire  its  rank  of  capital.  Today  it 
is  still  the  first  city  of  the  East. 

The  Palace. — The  emperors  who  dwelt  in  the  East^ 
adopted  the  customs  of  the  Orient,  wearing  delicate 
garments  of  silk  and  gold  and  for  a  head-dress  a 
diadem  of  pearls.  They  secluded  themselves  in  the 
depths  of  their  palace  where  they  sat  on  a  throne  of 
gold,  surrounded  by  their  ministers,  separated  from 
the  world  by  a  crowd  of  courtiers,  servants,  function- 
aries and  military  guards.  One  must  prostrate  one's 
self  before  them  with  face  to  the  earth  in  token  of 

^  There  were  often  two  emperors,  one  in  the  East,  the  other 
in  the  West,  but  there  was  but  one  empire.  The  two  emperors, 
though  they  may  have  resided,  one  in  Constantinople  and  the 
other  in  Italy,  were  considered  as  being  but  one  person.  In 
addressing  one  of  them  the  word  "you"  (in  the  plural)  was 
used,  as  if  both  were  addressed  at  the  same  time.  This  was  the 
first  use  of  the  pronoun  of  the  second  person  in  the  plural  for 
such  a  purpose;  for  throughout  antiquity  even  kings  and  em- 
perors were  addressed  in  the  singular. 


THE   LATER   EMPIRE  349 

adoration;  they  were  called  Lord  and  Majesty;  they 
were  treated  as  gods.  Everything  that  touched  their 
person  was  sacred,  and  so  men  spoke  of  the  sacred 
palace,  the  sacred  bed-chamber,  the  sacred  Council  of 
State,  even  the  sacred  treasury. 

The  regime  of  this  period  has  been  termed  that  of 
the  Later  Empire  as  distinguished  from  that  of  the 
three  preceding  centuries,  which  we  call  the  Early 
Empire. 

The  life  of  an  emperor  of  the  Early  Empire  (from 
the  first  to  the  third  century)  w^as  still  that  of  a  mag- 
istrate and  a  general ;  the  palace  of  an  emperor  of  the 
Later  Empire  became  similar  to  the  court  of  the  Per- 
sian king. 

The  Officials — The  officials  often  became  very  nu- 
merous. Diocletian  found  the  provinces  too  large 
and  so  made  several  divisions  of  them.  In  Gaul,  for 
example,  Lugdunensis  (the  province  about  Lyons) 
was  partitioned  into  four,  Aquitaine  into  three.  In 
place  of  forty-six  governors  there  were  from  this 
time  117.^ 

At  the  same  time  the  duties  of  the  officials  were 
divided.  Besides  the  governors  and  the  deputies  in 
the  provinces  there  were  in  the  border  provinces  mil- 
itary commanders — the  dukes  and  the  counts.  The 
emperor  had  about  him  a  small  picked  force  to  guard 
the  palace,  body-guards,  chamberlains,  assistants,  do- 
mestics, a  council  of  state,  bailiffs,  messengers,  and 
a  whole  body  of  secretaries  organized  in  four  bureaus. 

All  these  officials  did  not  now  receive  their  orders 

*The  number  under  Diocletian  was  10  t;  under  Constantine 
(Bury's  Gibbon,  ii.,  170),  116. — Ed. 


350  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

directly  from  the  emperor;  they  communica):ed  with 
him  only  through  their  superior  officers.  The  gov- 
ernors were  subordinate  to  the  two  praetorian  prefects, 
the  officials  of  public  works  to  the  two  prefects  of  the 
city,  the  collectors  of  taxes  to  the  Count  of  the  Sacred 
Largesses,  the  deputies  to  the  Count  of  the  Domains, 
all  the  officers  of  the  palace  to  the  Master  of  the  Offices, 
the  domestics  of  the  court  to  the  Chamberlain.  These 
heads  of  departments  had  the  character  of  ministers. 

This  system  is  not  very  difficult  for  us  to  compre- 
hend. We  are  accustomed  to  see  officials,  judges,  gen- 
erals, collectors,  and  engineers,  organized  in  distinct 
departments,  each  with  his  special  duty,  and  subordi- 
nated to  the  commands  of  a  chief  of  the  service.  We 
even  have  more  ministers  than  there  were  in  Con- 
stantinople; but  this  administrative  machine  which  has 
become  so  familiar  to  us  because  we  have  been  ac- 
quainted with  it  from  our  infancy,  is  none  the  less 
complicated  and  unnatural.  It  is  the  Later  Empire 
that  gave  us  the  first  model  of  this;  the  Byzantine 
empire  preserved  it  and  since  that  time  all  absolute  gov- 
ernments have  been  forced  to  imitate  it  because  it 
has  made  the  work  of  government  easier  for  those 
who  have  it  to  do. 

Society  in  the  Later  Empire. — The  Later  Empire  is 
a  decisive  moment  in  the  history  of  civilization.  The 
absolute  power  of  the  Roman  magistrate  is  united  to 
the  pompous  ceremonial  of  the  eastern  kings  to  create 
a  power  unknown  before  in  history.  This  new  im- 
perial majesty  crushes  everything  beneath  it ;  the  in- 
habitants of  the  empire  cease  to  be  citizens  and  from 
the  fourth  century  are  called  in  Latin  "subjects"  and  in 


THE    LATER    EMPIRE  351 

Greek  ''slaves."  In  reality  all  are  slaves  of  the  em- 
peror, but  there  are  different  grades  of  servitude. 
There  are  various  degrees  of  nobility  which  the  mas- 
ter confers  on  them  and  which  they  transmit  to  their 
posterity.     The  following  is  the  series :  ^ 

1.  The  Nohilissimi  (the  very  noble)  ;  these  are  the 
imperial  family; 

2.  The  lUustrcs  (the  notable) — the  chief  ministers 
of  departments ; 

3.  The  Spectahiles  (the  eminent) — the  high  dig- 
nitaries ; 

4.  The  Clarissimi  (most  renowned) — the  great 
officials,  also  sometimes  called  senators ; 

5.  The  Perfectissimi  (very  perfect). ^ 

Every  important  man  has  his  rank,  his  title,  and  his 
functions.^  The  only  men  who  are  of  consequence  are 
the  courtiers  and  officials ;  it  is  the  regime  of  titles  and 
of  etiquette.  A  clearer  instance  has  never  been  given 
of  the  issue  of  absolute  power  united  with  the  mania 
for  titles  and  with  the  purpose  to  regulate  everything. 
The  Later  Empire  exhibits  the  completed  type  of  a 
society  reduced  to  a  machine  and  of  a  government  ab- 
sorbed by  a  court.  It  realized  the  ideal  that  is  pro- 
posed today  by  the  partisans  of  absolute  power ;  and 
for  a  long  time  the  friends  of  liberty  must  fight  against 
the  traditions  which  the  Later  Empire  has  left  to  us. 

^  Without  counting  the  ancient  titles  of  consul  and  praetor, 
which  were  still  preserved,  and  the  new  title  of  patrician  which 
was  given  by  special  favor. 

^  Of  inferior  rank. 

^  We  know  the  whole  system  by  an  official  almanac  of  about 
the  year  419,  entitled  Notitia  Dignitatum,  a  list  of  all  the  civil 
and  military  dignities  and  powers  in  the  East  and  West.  Each 
dignitary  has  a  special  section  preceded  by  an  emblem  which 
represents  his  honors. 


352  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 


THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  STATE 

Triumph  of  Christianity. — During  the  first  two  cen- 
turies of  our  era  the  Christians  occupied  but  a  small 
place  in  the  empire.  Almost  all  of  them  were  of  the. 
lower  classes,  workmen,  freedmen,  slaves,  who  lived 
obscure  lives  in  the  multitude  of  the  great  cities.  For 
a  long  time  the  aristocracy  ignored  the  Christians ;  even 
in  the  second  century  Suetonius  in  his  "Lives  of  the 
Twelve  Caesars"  speaks  of  a  certain  Chrestus  who  agi- 
tated the  populace  of  Rome.  When  the  religion  first 
concerned  the  world  of  the  rich  and  cultivated  people, 
they  were  interested  simply  to  deride  it  as  one  only  for 
the  poor  and  ignorant.  It  was  precisely  because  it 
addressed  the  poor  of  this  world  in  providing  a  com- 
pensation in  the  life  to  come  that  Christianity  made  so 
many  proselytes.  Persecution,  far  from  suppressing 
it,  gave  it  more  force.  **The  blood  of  the  martyrs," 
said  the  faithful,  ''is  the  seed  of  the  church."  Dur.ing 
the  whole  of  the  third  century  conversions  continued, 
not  only  among  the  poor,  but  among  the  aristocracy  as 
well.  At  the  first  of  the  fourth  century  all  th^  East 
had  become  Christian.  Helena,  the  mother  of  Con- 
stantine,  was  a  Christian  and  has  been  canonized  by 
the  church.  When  Constantine  marched  against  his 
rival,  he  took  for  his  ensign  a  standard  (the  labarum), 
which  bore  the  cross  and  the  monogram  of  Christ.  His 
victory  was  the  victory  of  the  Christians.  He  allowed 
them  now  to  perform  their  religious  rites  freely  (by 
the  edict  of  313),  and  later  he  favored  them  openly. 


THE   LATER   EMPIRE  353 

Yet  he  did  not  break  with  the  ancient  rehgion :  while 
he  presided  at  the  great  assembly  of  the  Christian  bish- 
ops, he  continued  to  hold  the  title  of  Pontifex  Maxi- 
mus;  he  carried  in  his  helmet  a  nail  of  the  true  cross 
and  on  his  coins  he  still  had  the  sun-god  represented. 
In  his  city  of  Constantinople  he  had  a  Christian  church 
built,  but  also  a  temple  to  Victory.  For  a  half-century 
it  was  difficult  to  know  what  was  the  official  religion 
of  the  empire. 

Organization  of  the  Church — The  Christians  even 
under  persecution  had  never  dreamed  of  overthrow- 
ing the  empire.  As  soon  as  persecution  ceased,  the 
bishops  became  the  allies  of  the  emperors.  Then  the 
Christian  church  was  organized  definitively,  and  it  was 
organized  on  the  model  of  the  Later  Empire,  in  the 
form  that  it  preserves  to  this  day.  Each  city  had  a 
bishop  wha  resided  in  the  city  proper  and  governed 
the  people  of  the  territory;  this  territory  subject  to  the 
bishop  was  termed  a  Diocese.  In  any  country  in  the 
Later  Empire,  there  were  as  many  bishops  and  dioceses 
as  there  were  cities.  This  is  why  the  bishops  were  so 
numerous  and  dioceses  so  many  in  the  East  and  in 
Italy  where  the  country  was  covered  with  cities.  In 
Gaul,  on  the  i:ontrary,  there  were  but  120  dioceses 
between  the  Rhine  and  the  Pyrenees,  and  the  most  of 
these,  save  in,  the  south,  were  of  the  size  of  a  modern 
French  department.  Each  province  became  an  eccle- 
siastical province;  the  bishop  of  the  capital  (metropo- 
lis) became  the  metropolitan,  or  as  he  was  later  termed, 
the  archbishop. 

The  Councils. — In  this  century  began  the  councils, 
the  great  assemblies  of  the  church.     There  had  already 


354  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

been  some  local  councils  at  which  the  bishops  and 
priests  of  a  single  province  had  been  present.  For  the 
first  time,  in  324/  Constantine .  convoked  a  General 
Assembly  of  the  World  (an  ecumenical  council)  at 
Nicsea,  in  Asia  Minor;  318  ecclesiastics  were  in  at- 
tendance. They  discussed  questions  of  theology  and 
drew  up  the  Nicene  Creed,  the  Catholic  confession  of 
faith.  Then  the  emperor  wrote  to  all  the  churches, 
bidding  them  ''conform  to  the  will  of  God  as  expressed 
by  the  council."  This  was  the  first  ecumenical  council, 
and  there  were  three  others^  of  these  before  the  ar- 
rival of  the  barbarians  made  an  assembly  of.  the  whole 
church  impossible.  The  decisions  reached  by  these 
councils  had  the  force  of  law  for  all  Christians :  the 
decisions  are  called  Canons^  (rules).  The  collection 
of  these  regulations  constitutes  the  Canon  Law. 

The  Heretics. — From  the  second  century  there  were 
among  the  Christians  heretics  who  professed  opinions 
contrary  to  those  of  the  majority  of  the  church.  Often 
the  bishops  of  a  country  assembled  to  pronounce  the 
new  teaching  as  false,  to  compel  the  author  to  abjure, 
and,  if  he  refused,  to  separate  him  from  the  commu- 
nion of  Christians.  But  frequently  the  author  of  the 
heresy  had  partisans  convinced  of  the  truth  of  his 
teaching  who  would  not  submit  and  continued  to  pro- 
fess the  condemned  opinions.  This  was  the  cause  of 
hatred  and  violent  strife  between  them  and  the  faith- 
ful who  were  attached  to  the  creed  of  the  church  (the 

*  It  met  in  325. — Ed. 

2  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  author  is  speaking  of  ecumenical 
or  world  councils.  The  th  -ee  referred  to  are  Constantinople 
(381),  Ephesus  (431),  and  Chalcedon  (451).— Ed. 

^  Today,  even,  the  word  "cmonical"  signifies  "in  accordance 
with  rule.'- 


THE    LATER   EMPIRE  355 

orthodox).  As  long  as  the  Christians  were  weak  and 
persecuted  by  the  state,  they  fought  among  themselves 
only  with  words  and  with  books ;  but  when  all  society 
was  Christian,  the  contests  against  the  heretics  turned 
into  persecutions,  and  sometimes  into  civil  wars. 

Almost  all  of  the  heresies  of  this  time  arose  among 
the  Greeks  of  Asia  or  Egypt,  peoples  who  were  subtle, 
sophistical,. and  disputatious.  The  heresies  were  usu- 
ally attempts  to  explain  the  mysteries  of  the  Trinity 
and  of  the  Incarnation.  The  most  significant  of  these 
heresies  was  that  of  Arius ;  he  taught  that  Christ  was 
created  by  God  the  Father  and  was  not  equal  to  him. 
The  Council  of  Nicsea  condemned  this  view,  but  his 
doctrine,  called  Arianism,  spread  throughout  the  East. 
From  that  time  for  two  centuries  Catholics  and  Arians 
fought  to  see  who  should  have  the  supremacy  in  the 
church ;  the  stronger  party  anathematized,  exiled,  im- 
prisoned, and  sometimes  killed  the  chiefs  of  the  oppo- 
sition. For  a  long  time  the  Arians  had  the  advantage ; 
several  emperors  took  sides  with  them;  then,  too,  as 
the  barbarians  entered  the  empire,  they  were  converted 
to  Arianism  and  received  Arian  bishops.  More  than 
two  centuries  had  passed  before  the  Catholics  had 
overccme  this  heresy. 

Pag.Miism. — The  ancient  religion  of  the  Gentiles  did 
not  disappear  at  a  single  stroke.  The  Orient  was 
quickly  converted;  but  in  the  Occident  there  were  few 
Christians  outside  the  cities,  and  even  there  many  con- 
tinued to  worship  idols.  The  first  Christian  emperors 
did  not  wish  to  break  with  the  ancient  imperial  religion ; 
they  simultaneously  protected  the  bishops  of  the  Chris- 
tians and  the  priests  of  the  gods;  they  presided  over 


356  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

councils  and  yet  remained  pontifex  maximus.  One  of 
them,  Julian  (surnamed  the  Apostate),  openly  returned 
to  the  ancient  religion.  The  emperor  Gratian  in  384^ 
was  the  first  to  refuse  the  insignia  of  the  pontifex  maxi- 
mus. But  as  intolerance  was  general  in  this  century, 
as  soon  as  the  Roman  religion  ceased  to  be  official,  men 
began  to  persecute  it.  The  sacred  fire  of  Rome  that 
had  burned  for  eleven  centuries  was  extinguished,  the 
Vestals  were  removed,  the  Olympian  games  were  cele- 
brated for  the  last  time  in  394.  Then  the  monks  of 
Egypt  issued  from  their  deserts  to  destroy  the  altars 
of  the  false  gods  and  to  establish  relics  in  the  temples 
of  Anubis  and  Serapis.  Marcellus,  a  bishop  of  Syria, 
at  the  head  of  a  band  of  soldiers  and  gladiators  sacked 
the  temple  of  Jupiter  at  Apamaea  and  set  himself  to 
scour  the  country  for  the  destruction  of  the  sanctu- 
aries ;  he  was  killed  by  the  peasants  and  raised  by  the 
church  to  the  honor  of  a  saint. 

Soon  idolatry  persisted  only  in  the  rural  districts 
where  it  escaped  detection ;  the  idolaters  were  peasants 
who  continued  to  adore  sacred  trees  and  fountains  and 
to  assemble  in  proscribed  sanctuaries.^  The  Christians 
commenced  to  call  "pagans"  (the  peasants)  those 
whom  up  to  this  time  they  'had  called  Gentiles.  And 
this  name  has  still  clung  to  them.  Paganism  thus  led 
an  obscure  existence  in  Italy,  in  Gaul,  and  in  Spain 
down  to  the  end  of  the  sixth  century. 

Theodosius. — The  incursions  of  the  Germanic  peo- 
ples into  the  empire  continued  for  two  centuries  until 
the  Huns,  a  peo]:>le  of  Tartar  horsemen,  came  from  the 

*  Probably  375;    Gratian  died  in  383. — Ed. 
2  Several  saints,  like  St.  Marcellus,  found  rnartyrdom  at  the 
hands  of  peasants  exasperated  at  the  destruction  of  their  idols. 


THE    LATER   EMPIRE  357 

Steppes  of  Asia,  and  threw  themselves  on  the  Germans, 
who  occupied  the  country  to  the  north  of  the  Danube. 
In  that  country  there  was  already  a  great  German 
kingdom,  that  of  the  Goths,  who  had  been  converted 
to  Christianity  by  Ulfilas,  an  Arian.  To  escape  the 
Huns,  a  part  of  this  people,  the  West  Goths  (Visi- 
goths), fled  into  Roman  territory,  defeated  the  Roman 
armies,  and"  overspread  the  country  even  to  Greece. 
Valens,  the  emperor  of  the  East,  had  perished  in  the 
defeat  of  Adrianople  (378)  ;  Gratian,  the  emperor  of 
the  West,  took  as  colleague  a  noble  Spaniard,  Theo- 
dosius  by  name,  and  gave  him  the  title  of  Augustus  of 
the  East  (379).  Theodosius  was  able  to  rehabilitate 
his  army  by  avoiding  a  great  battle  with  the  Visigoths 
and  by  making  a  war  of  skirmishes  against  them ;  this 
decided  them  to  conclude  a  treaty.  They  accepted  ser- 
vice under  the  empire,  land  was  given  them  in  the 
country  to  the  south  of  the  Danube,  and  they  were 
charged  with  preventing  the  enemies  of  the  empire 
from  crossing  the  river. 

Theodosius,  having  reestablished  peace  in  the  East, 
came  to  the  West  where  Gratian  had  been  killed  by 
order  of  the  usurper  Maximus  (383).  This  Maxi- 
muswas  the  commander  of  the  Roman  army  of  Brit- 
ain ;  he  had  crossed  into  Gaul  with  his  army,  abandon- 
ing the  Roman  provinces  of  Britain  to  the  ravages  of 
the  highland  Scotch,  had  defeated  Gratian,  and  in- 
vaded Italy.  He  was  master  of  the  West,  Theodosius 
of  the  East.  The  contest  between  them  was  not  only 
one  between  persons ;  it  was  a  battle  between  two  re- 
ligions :  Theodosius  was  Catholic  and  had  assembled 
a  council  at  Constantinople  to  condemn  the  heresy  of 


358  ANCIENT   CIVILIZATION 

Arius  (381);  Maximus  was  ill-disposed  toward  the 
church.  The  engagement  occurred  on  the  banks  of 
the  Save ;  Maximus  was  defeated,  taken,  and  exe- 
cuted. 

Theodosius  established  Valentinian  II,  the  son  of 
Gratian,  in  the  West  and  then  returned  to  the  East. 
But  Arbogast,  a  barbarian  Frank,  the  general  of  the 
troops  of  Valentinian,  had  the  latter  killed,  and  with- 
out venturing  to  proclaim  himself  emperor  since  he 
was  not  a  Roman,  had  his  Roman  secretary  Eugenius 
made  emperor.  This  was  a  religious  war:  Arbogast 
had  taken  the  side  of  the  pagans ;  Theodosius,  the  vic- 
tor, had  Eugenius  executed  and  himself  remained  the 
sole  emperor.  His  victory  was  that  of  the  Catholic 
church. 

In  391  the  empjeror  Theodosius  promulgated  the 
Edict  of  Milan.  It  prohibited  the  practice  of  the  an- 
cient religion :  whoever  off.ered  a  sacrifice,  adored  an 
idol,  or  entered  a  temple  should  be  condemned  to  death 
as  a  state  criminal,  and  his  goods  should  be  confiscated 
to  the  profit  of  the  informer.  All  the  pagan  temples 
were  razed  to  the  ground  or  converted  into  Christian 
churches.  And  so  Theodosius  was  extolled  by  eccle- 
siastical writers  as  the  model  for  epiperors. 

Theodosius  gave  a  rare  example  of  submission  to 
the  church.  The  inhabitants  of  Thessalpnica  had  risen 
In  riot,  had  killed  their  governor,  and  overthrown  the 
statues  of  the  emperor.  TheodQsius  in  irritation 
ordered  the  people  to  be  massacred ;  7,000  persons  suf- 
fered death.  When  the  emperor  presented  himself 
some  time  after  to  enter  the  cathedral  of  Milan,  Am- 
brose, the  bishop,  charged  him  with  his  crime  before 


THE   LATER    EMPIRE  359 

all  the  people,  and  declared  that  he  could  not  give 
entrance  to  the  church  to  a  man  defiled  with  so  many 
murders.  Theodosius  confessed  his  sin,  accepted  the 
public  penance  which  the  bishop  imposed  upon  him,  and 
for  eight  months  remained  at  the  door  of  the  church. 


APPENDIX 

REFERENCES    FOR    SUPPLEMENTARY    READING 

PREHISTORIC   TIMES 

Lubbock:    Prehistoric  Times.      Appleton,  1878. 

Lubbock:    Origin  of  Civilization.      Appleton,  1881. 

Hoemes:  Primitive  Man.    Temple  Primers.      Macmillan,    igoi. 

Lyell:  Antiquity  of  Man,     London:  Murray,  1863. 

Keary:  Dawn  of  History.     Scribners. 

Tylor:  Anthropology.     Appleton,   1881. 

McLennan:    Studies  in  Ancient  History.     Macmillan,     1886. 

Ripley:   Races  of  Europe.     2  v.  Appleton,  1899. 

Sergi:  The  Mediterranean  Race.     Scribners,  1901. 

Maine:  Ancient  Law.     Holt,  1883. 

Mason:  Woman's  Share  in  Primitive  Culture.     Appleton,  1894. 

General  Works  of  Reference — 

Ploetz:  Epitome    of    Universal  History.       Houghton,   Miffiin 

&  Co.,  1883. 
Ranke:    Universal    History,    edited   by   Prothero.     Harpers, 

1885. 
Andrews:   Institutes  of  General  History.    Silver,  1887. 
Haydn:  Dictionary  of  Dates.     Putnams,  1889. 
Earned:  History  for  Ready  Reference.     Nichols. 

Atlases — 

Spruner-Sieglin :   Atlas  Antiquus.     Gotha. 

Kiepert:     Atlas    Antiquus.      Leach,    Shewell,    and    Sanborn. 

Putzger:    Historischer  Schul-atlas.       Lemcke   and   Buechner, 

1902. 
Droysen:      Allgemeiner     Historischer     Hand-atlas.     Leipsic, 

1885. 
Freeman:    Historical  Geography  of  Europe.     Edited  by  Bury. 

2  v.  Longmans,  1Q03. 
Schrader:  Atlas  de  Geographic  Historique.     Paris:  Hachette. 

General  Histories  of  the  East — 

Sayce:     Ancient    Empires    of    the    East.      Scribners,     1886. 
Lenormant    and    Chevallier:     Ancient    History   of   the    East. 

2  V.  Lippincott,  1875. 
Duncker:     History    of    Antiquity.     6    v.    London:    Bentley 

1877-82. 


362  APPENDIX 

Rawlinson:     Manual    of   Ancient    History.     American    Book 

Co.,  1871. 
Clarke:      Ten    Great    Religions.     Houghton,    Mifflin    &    Co., 

1894. 
Cunningham:    Western  Civilization  in  Its  Economic  Aspects. 

Cambridge  (England),  1898. 


EGYPT 

Sources — 

Records  of  the  Past,     6  v.  London:  Bagster,  1888-92.    4s.  6d. 

each.     Old  Series,  1875-8.      12  v. 
Herodotus:    Book  II      Rawlinson's  edition.     2  v.  Scribners, 

1897. 
Book  of  the  Dead.     Translated  by  Budge.     3  v.  Open  Court, 

1 90 1. 

Literature — 

Rawlinson:    Ancient  Egypt.     Putnams,  1887. 
Flinders-Petrie :    History  of  Egypt.     6  v.  London:    Scribners, 

1899. 
Breasted:    History  of  Egypt.     Scribners,  1905. 
Erman,  Life  in  Ancient  Egypt.     Macmillan,   1894. 
Maspero:    Dawn  of  Civilization.     Appleton,    1896. 
Maspero:     Life   in   Ancient    Egypt   and   Assyria.     Appleton, 

1892. 
Wilkinson:    Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians. 

3  V.  Dodd. 
Perrot  and  Chipiez:    History  of  Art  in  Ancient  Egypt.     2  v. 

Armstrong,  1882. 
Flinders-Petrie:    Egyptian  Decorative  Art.     London:   Metb- 

uen,   1895. 


BABYLON  AND  ASSYRIA 
Sources — 

Records  of  the  Past. 

Literature — 

Ragozin:    Chaldea.     Putnams,  1886. 

Ragozin:    Assyria.     Putnams,   1887. 

Sayce:  Assyria:  Its  Princes,  Priests,  and  People.  S.  P.  C.  K., 
1890. 

Sayce:  Social  Life  among  the  Assyrians  and  Babylonians. 
S.  P.  C.  K.,  1893. 

Sayce:  Fresh  Light  from  Ancient  Monuments.  S.  P.  C.  K., 
1883. 

Sayce:   Babylonians  and  Assyrians.      Scribners,  1889. 

Goodspeed:  History  of  the  Babylonians  and  Assyrians. 
Scribners,    1902. 

Layard :  Discoveries  among  the  Ruins  of  Nineveh  and  Baby- 
lon.    Barnes,  1875. 


APPENDIX  363 

Kro;    ?rr.n^Sf ETypA«ssyr •  Appleton, 

MasD^ero-    Struggle  of  the  Nations.     Appleton,  1897- 

2  V.  Armstrong,  1884- 


INDIA 


Sources —  .    ,      t-    4- 

Sacred  Books  of  the  East. 


^  W^eler-^Trimer  of  Indian  History      Macmillan,  1890 
SSth    V    A.:  Early  History  of  India.     Oxford,   1904. 
Ragozin-    Vedic  India.     Putnams,  1895. 
Davids:  Buddhist  India.     Putnams,    1903. 
^S^^'  .fedfi^r -Jdr  Tn:ier^^Soha.n,edan   Rule. 
Mo''n"e"wmiaS's':-    Buddhisn..    Brahmanism.    and   Hinduism. 

Morier^-WilHims'^IndL'n  Wisdom.     London:  AUen.   .875-6. 
Fra"er:LiIerary  History  of  India      Scnbners    :898^ 
Maine;    Early  History  of  Institutions.     Holt,   1875- 

PERSIA 

Sources —   ,    ,     „    ^ 
Records  of  the  Past. 

ChSch-"itories  of  the  East  (from  Herodotus).     Dodd,   Mead 
&  Co.,  1883. 

P^rr'^t'and  Chipiez:    History  of  Art  in  Persia,  Phrygia.  etc. 
2  V.  Armstrong,  1895. 

THE  PHOENICIANS 

Sources — 

The  Old  Testament.  ,      t^  1 

Voyage  of  Hanno.  translated  by  Falconer. 


364  APPENDIX 

Literature — 

Rawlinson:    Phoenicia.      Putnams,  1889. 

Maspero:    Struggle  of  the  Nations.      Appleton,  1897. 

Paton:     Early    History   of   Syria    and    Palestine.     Scribners, 

1 90 1. 
Taylor:    The  Alphabet.      2  v.  Scribners,  1899. 
Parrot  and  Chipiez:    History  of  Art  in  Phoenicia  and  Cyprus. 

2  V.  Armstrong,  1885. 

THE    HEBREWS 
Sources — 

The  Old  Testament. 
The  Talmud. 

Josephus:  Antiquities  of  the  Jews;  Wars  of  the  Jews;  Whis- 
ton's  translati|fn.  4  v.  London,  1825.  New  edition  of 
Whiston  by  Shilleto.      5  v.  Macmillan,  1889-90. 

Literature — 

Hosmer:    The  Jews.     Putnams,  1885. 

Sayce:    Early  History  of  the  Hebrews.      Macmillan,   1897. 
Kent:    History  of  the  Hebrew  People.      2  v.  Scribners,   1899. 
Kent:    History  of  the  Jewish  People.      2  v.  Scribners,  1899. 
Milman:    History  of  the  Jews.     3  v.  Armstrong,  1870. 
Stanley:     History    of    the    Jewish    Church.     3    v.    Scribners, 

1884. 
McCurdy:     History,    Prophecy,    and   the   Monuments.     Mac- 
millan, 1 90 1.     3  V. 
Graetz:    History  of  the  Jews.     6  v.  Jewish  Publishing  Co., 

1891-98. 
Perrot  and  Chipiez:    History  of  Art  in  Sardinia,  Judea,  Syria 

and  Asia  Minor.      2  v.  Armstrong,   1890. 
Day:    Social  Life  of  the  Hebrews.     Scribners,  1901. 
Rosenau:      Jewish     Ceremonial     Institutions    and    Customs. 

Baltimore:    Friedenwald,  1903. 
Leroy-Boileau :     Israel    among   the    Nations;     translated    by 

Hellman.     Putnams,  1900. 
Cheyne:    Jewish   Religious   Life  after  the   Exile.     Putnams, 

1898. 

GREECE 
General  Histories — 

Grote:    History  of  Greece.      10  v.  Harpers,  185 1-6. 
Holm:    History  of  Greece.     4  v.  Macmillan,  1894-8. 
Duruy:    History  of  Greece.      8  v.  Estes,  1890-2. 
Abbott:    History  of  Greece.     3  v.  Putnams,  1888-99. 
One-volume  histories  of  Greece  are:    Bury  (Macmillan,  1902). 
Oman    (Longmans,     1901).     Botsford    (Macmillan,    1899). 
Myers  (Ginn,  1895).     Cox  (London,  1883). 

Greek  Antiquities — 

Smith:  Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Roman  Antiquities.  Lon- 
don:   Murray,  1 890-1.     2  v. 


APPENDIX  365 

Gardner  and  Jevons:    Manual  of  Greek  Antiquities.     Scrib- 

ners,  i8q;. 
Schomannrihe  Antiquities  of  Greece.      London,  Rivingtons, 

1880.      A  new  and  improved  edition  in  the  German. 
Harpers'     Classical     Literature    and    Antiquities.     Harpers, 

1896. 

Greek  Historical  Sources  (translated  into  English). 

Homer:  Iliad.  Translated  by  Lang,  Leaf,  and  Myers. 
Macmillan. 

Homer:  Odyssey.  Translated  by  Butcher  and  Lang.  Mac- 
millan. 

Herodotus:  Translated  by  Rawlinson.     Appleton,  1880.     4  V. 

Text  of  same  with  abridged  notes:    Scribners.  2  v.  1897. 

Herodotus:    Translated  bv  Macaulay.      2  v.  Macmillan,  1890. 

Thucvdides:    Translated  by  Jowett.      2  v.  Lothrop,  1883. 

Xenophon:    Dakyns'  edition.     4  v.  Macmillan,   1890-7. 

Demosthenes:  Works  translated  by  Kennedy.  5  v.  Mac- 
millan. 

Arrian:   Translated  in  Bohn  Library.     Macmillan. 

Pausanias:   Description  of  Greece.      2  v.  Macmillan,_  1886. 

Pausanias:  Description  of  Greece.  Frazer's  edition.  Mac- 
millan, 6  V. 

Polvbius:    Shuckburgh's  edition.      2  v.  Macmillan,   1889. 

Plutarch:  Lives.  Translated  by  Stewart  and  Long.  4  v. 
Macmillan,  1880. 

Plutarch:   Lives.     North's  translation.      10  v.  Macmillan. 

Source  Material  in  Greek  History  (published  in  pamphlet 
form).  . 

Fling:   "Studies  in  European  History."     Chicago,  Amsworth. 

5c.  each. 

The  Homeric  Age. 

The  Athenian  Constitution. 

Spartan  Life. 

Alexander's  Methods  of  Warfare. 

Achaean  League.  ^^ 

Indiana   University   "Extracts  from  the  Sources.        Bloom- 
ington,  Ind.     3c.  each. 

Funeral  Oration  of  Pericles. 

Demosthenes'  Third  Philippic. 

Phihp's  Letter  to  the  Athenians. 

Tvpical  Passage  from  the  Apology  of  Socrates. 
Cassell's  National  Library.     Cassell,   New  York.      loc.  each. 

Plutarch  translated  in  several  volumes. 

Plato's  Crito  and  Pha^do. 

Xenophon 's  Memorable  Thoughts  of  Socrates. 

Herodotus,  Egypt  and  Scythia. 

Periods  of  Greek  History — 

Tsountas-Manatt:  Mycenaean  Age.     Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co., 
1896. 


366  APPENDIX 

Ridgeway:   The  Early  Age  in  Greece.     2  v.  Cambridge,  igoi. 

Freeman:    Studies  of  Travel:    Greece.     Putnams,  1893. 

Gierke:    Familiar  Studies  in  Homer.     Longmans,  1892. 

Jebb:    Introduction  to  Homer.     Ginn  &  Co.,  1887. 

Allcroft  and  Mason :  Early  Grecian  History.  Hinds  &  Noble, 
1898. 

Benjamin:    Troy.     Scribners,   1880. 

Allcroft  and  Mason:  Making  of  Athens.  Hinds  &  Noble, 
1898. 

Cox:   Greeks  and  Persians.     Scribners,  1876. 

Grundy:    The  Great  Persian  War.     Scribners,  1901 

Cox:    Athenian  Empire.     Scribners,   1877. 

Lloyd:    Age  of  Pericles.     2  v.  Macmillan,  1875. 

Abbott:    Pericles.      Putnams,   1895. 

Grant:    Greece  in  the  Age  of  Pericles.     Scribners,  1893. 

Allcroft  and  Mason:  Peloponnesian  War.  Hinds  &  Noble, 
1898. 

Freeman:    Sicily.     Putnams,  1892. 

Allcroft  and  Mason:  Sparta  and  Thebes.  Hinds  &  Noble, 
1898. 

Sankey:    Spartan  and  Theban  Supremacies.     Scribners,  1877. 

Allcroft  and  Mason:  Decline  of  Hellas.  Hinds  &  Noble, 
1898. 

Curteis:    Rise  of  the  Macedonian  Empire.     Scribners,    1878. 

Hogarth:    Philip  and  Alexander.     Scribners,   1897. 

Wheeler:    Alexander  the  Great.      Putnams,  1900. 

Dodge:    Alexander.      Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1890. 

Mahaffy:    Alexander's  Empire.      Putnams,  1887. 

Mahaffy:    Problems  in  Greek  History.      Macmillan,  1892. 

Bevan:    House  of  Seleucus.      2  v.  Longmans,  1902. 

Mahaffy:  Empire  of  Egypt  under  the  Ptolemies.  2  v.  Mac- 
millan, 1899. 

Mahaffy:    Greek  Life  and  Thought.     Macmillan,  1887. 

Greek  Political  Development — 

Fowler:    City-State  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans.     Macmillan, 

1893. 
Greenidge:    Greek  Constitutional  History.     Macmillan,  1896. 
Schomann:    Antiquities  of  Greece.      London,  1880. 
Cox:    Lives  of  Greek  Statesmen.     2  v.  Harpers,  1886. 
Gilbert:     Constitutional   Antiquities   of   Athens   and   Sparta. 

Macmillan,  1895. 
Botsford:    Athenian  Constitution.     Macmillan,  1893. 
Whibley:    Greek  Oligarchies.      Macmillan,   1896. 
Whibley:    Political   Parties  in  Athens  in  the  Peloponnesian 

War.      Macmillan,  1889. 
Freeman:   History  of  Federal  Government.     Macmillan,  1863. 

Social  Life  of  the  Greeks — 

Bliimner:    Home  Life  of  the  Ancient  Greeks.     Cassell,   1893. 

MahaiTv:    Social  Life  in  Greece.      Macmillan,  1887. 

Mahaffy:    A  Survey  of  Greek  Civilization.     Macmillan,  1899. 


APPENDIX  867 

Giihl  and  Koner:    Life  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans.     Scribners, 

1877. 
Becker:    Charicles.     Longmans. 
Cunningham:    Western  CiviHzation  in  Its  Economic  Aspects. 

Cambridge,  1898. 
Davidson:    Education  of  the  Greek  People.     Appleton,  1894. 
Mahaffy:    Old  Greek    Education.     Harpers,   1882. 

Histories  of  Greek  Literature — 

Mahaffy:    History  of  Classical  Greek  Literature.     2  v.  Mac- 

millan,  1880. 
Murray:    Ancient  Greek  Literature.     Appleton,  1897. 
Jevons:  History  of  Greek  Literature.     Scribners,  1886. 
Jebb:     Primer    of    Greek    Literature.     American    Book  Co., 

1878. 
Jebb:    Classical  Greek  Poetry.     Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co. 
Symonds:    The  Greek  Poets.     2  v.  Macmillan. 
Warr:    The  Greek  Epic.     Young,  1895. 
Jebb:    The  Attic  Orators.      2  v.     Macmillan,  1876. 
Pater:    Greek  Studies.     Macmillan,   1895. 

Histories  of  Art — 

Reber:    History  of  Ancient  Art.     Harpers,   1882. 

Liibke:    Outlines  of  the  History  of  Art.     2  v.  Dodd,   1881. 

Perrot  and  Chipiez:   History  of  Art  in  Primitive  Greece.      2  v. 

Armstrong,  1895. 
Tarbell:    History  of  Greek  Art.     Macmillan,   1896. 
Fergusson:   History  of  Architecture.      2  v.  Dodd,  1875. 
Gardner:    Handbook  of  Greek  Sculpture.     Macmillan,  1896-7. 
Harrison  and  Verall:    Mythology  and  Monuments  of  Ancient 

Athens.     Macmillan,  1894. 
Harrison:    Introductory   Studies   in   Greek   Art.     Macmillan, 

1892. 
Gardner:    Ancient  Athens.     Macmillan,  1902. 

Greek  Archeology — 

CoUignon:     Manual    of    Greek    Archseology.      Cassell,  1886. 

Murray:    Handbook  of  Greek  Archaeology.     Scribners,  1892. 

Schuckardt:     Schliemann's    Excavations.     Macmillan,  1891. 

Diehl:     Excursions   in   Greece.     Lemcke   &    Buechner,  1893. 

Gardner:    New  Chapters  in  Greek   History.     Putnams,  1892. 

Greek  Philosophy — 

Mayor:     Sketch    of   Ancient    Philosophy.     Macmillan,    1881. 
Marshall:    Short  History  of  Greek  Philosophy.     Macmillan, 

1891. 
Plato:    Translated  by  Jowett.     4  v.  Scribners. 
Aristotle:     Translated    in    Bohn's    Library.    Macmillan. 
Zeller:    Outlines  of  the  History  of  Greek   Philosophy.     Holt, 

1890. 


368  APPENDIX 

Grecian  Mythology — 

Gayley:    Classic  Myths.     Ginn,  1893. 

Guerber:    Myths  of  Greece  and  Rome.     American  Book  Co., 

1893. 
Bulfinch:    Age  of  Fable.     Lee  &  Shepard,  1881. 


ROME 

General  Histories — 

Mommsen:   History  of  Rome.     5  v.  Scribners,    1895. 

Ihne:    History  of  Rome.      5  v.  London:  Longmans,   1871-82. 

Duruy:     History   of    Rome.     8    v.    Boston:    Jewett,    1884-5. 

Long:  Decline  of  the  Roman  Republic.  5  v.  London:  Bell, 
1864-74. 

Greenidge:  History  of  Rome  During  the  Latin  Republic. 
L     Methuen,   1904. 

Shuckburgh:    History  of  Rome.     Macmillan,  1894. 

How  and  Leigh:   History  of  Rome.     Longmans,  1896. 

Pelham:  Outlines  of  Roman  History.     Putnams,  1893. 

Botsford:    History  of  Rome.     Macmillan,   1903. 

Merivale:  History  of  the  Romans  under  the  Empire.  6  v, 
Appleton,  1875. 

Gibbon:  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  Bury's  edi- 
tion.    7  V.     London:  Methuen,  1900-2. 


Sources  of  Roman  History  (translated  into  English). 

Livy:  History  and  Epitome,  translated  by  Spillan.  4  v. 
Macmillan,  1887-90. 

Polybius:  Histories,  translated  by  Shuckburgh.  2  v.  Mac- 
millan, 1889. 

Plutarch:  Lives,  translated  by  Stewart  and  Long.  4  v. 
Macmillan,  1880. 

Appian:  Roman  History,  translated  by  White.  2  v.  Mac- 
millan, 1899. 

Sallust,  Florus,  and  Velleius  Paterculus,  translated  by  Wat- 
son.    Macmillan,  1887. 

Cicero:  Orations,  translated  by  Yonge.  4  v.  Macmillan, 
1851-2. 

Cicero:  Letters,  translated  by  Shuckburgh.  4  v.  Macmillan, 
1899. 

Caesar:  Gallic  War  and  Civil  War.     Macmillan,  1890. 

Justin,  Nepos,  and  Eutropius,  translated  by  Watson.  Mac- 
millan. 

Augustus:  Deeds  (Monumentum  Ancyranum);  in  University 
of  Pennsylvania.  Translations  and  Reprints,  vol.  v. 
Philadelphia,  1898. 

Suetonius:  Lives  of  the  Twelve  Caesars,  translated  by  Thomas. 
Forester.      Macmillan,    1898. 

Tacitus:  Annals,  translated  by  Church  and  Brodribb.  Mac- 
millan, 1895. 


APPENDIX 


369 


Tacitus:   History,  translated  by  Church  and  Brodribb.     Mac- 
Ta^tus"'   Ge'rmania,    translated    by    Church    and    Brodribb. 

Jo"''Antfq'u\ies  and  Wars  of  the  Jews,  translated  by 

Whiston-Shilleto.      5  v.  Macmillan,   1889-90. 
Pliny  the  Younger:    Letters,  translated  by  Melmoth.     Mac 

Ma'^^urAurelius:     Meditations,    translated   by   Long.     Mac- 

AmmiaSus  M^rceUinus:  Roman  History,  translated  by  Yonge. 

JuUanTheEmp^^^^^^^    Works,  translated  by  King.     Macmillan, 

Euseblus:     Ecclesiastical   History   and   Life   of   Constantine. 

translated  by  McGiffert.     Scribners,  1890. 
Jerome:    Works.      Scnbners    1893. 
Augustine:    Works.     8  v.     Scnbners,  1886-8 
Munro:    Source  Book  of  Roman  History.     Heath.   1904. 
Robinson:     Readings  in    European   History.    Vol.    L     Ginn. 

Grelmdge  and   Clay:    Sources    for    Roman    History,     b.    c. 

Gw^t^n-:    i:i::^olslro'm    Early   Christian    Writers.     Mac 
millan,    1893. 

'°Ftog-    :^EurTea"Siftoryi"tudies.'.'     Ains.orth.      jc  each. 
The  Roman  Constitution.  -^.    ,  -r,      •    Wo. 

Roman  Life  in  the  Time  of  the  First  Punic  War. 
Roman  Life  in  the  Jugurthme  Period. 
Roman  Life  in  the  Early  Empire. 

InSana'umversity    "Extracts  from  the  Sources."     Bloom- 
ington,   Ind.     3c. 
Hannibal's  Passage  of  the  Alps. 
Cicero's  Oration  against  Verres 
Selections  from  the  Satires  of  Juvenal 
Selections  from  the  Letters  of  Plmy  the  Younger. 
The  Germania  of  Tacitus. 

Laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables.  .  j    n       •   4. 

Ui^tlrsi^y    of    Pennsylvama.      '^ranslations    and    Repnnts 
from  the  Original  Sources  of  European  History.       Phil- 
adelphia, or  Longmans,  New  York. 
The  Early  Christian  Persecutions. 
Mommientum  Ancyranum. 
The  Early  Germans. 
Extracts  from  the  Notitia  Dignitatum. 
The  Canons  of  the  First  Four  General  Councils. 
Cassell's  National  Library.     Cassell    New  York. 
Plutarch  translated  in  several  volumes. 


370  APPENDIX 

Periods  of  Roman  History — 

Ihne:    Early  Rome.     Scribners,  1893. 

AUcroft  and  Mason;  Struggle  for  Empire.  Hinds  &  Noble, 
1893. 

Church:    Carthage.      Putnams,  1886. 

Smith:    Carthage  and  the  Carthaginians.     Longmans,    1890. 

Smith:    Rome  and  Carthage.      Scribners,  1891. 

Arnold:    Second  Punic  War.      Macmillan,  1849. 

Dodge:     Life  of   Hannibal.      Houghton,   Mifflin  &  Co.,    1891. 

Morris:    Hannibal.      Putnams,  1897. 

How:  Hannibal  and  the  Great  War  between  Rome  and 
Carthage.      London:    Seeley,   1899. 

Allcroft  and  Mason:  Rome  under  the  Oligarchs.  Hinds  & 
Noble,  1893. 

Beesly:   Gracchi,  Marius,  and  Sulla.     Scribners,  1893. 

Allcroft  and  Mason:  Decline  of  the  Oligarchy.  Hinds  & 
Noble,  1893. 

Oman:    Seven  Roman  Statesmen.     Longmans,  1902. 

Beesly:  Catiline,  Clodius,  and  Tiberius.  London:  Chapman 
&  Hall,  1898. 

Strachan-Davidson:    Cicero.      Putnams,  1894. 

Forsyth:    Life  of  Cicero.      2  v.  Scribners,  1877. 

Boissier:    Cicero  and  His  Friends.     Putnams,  1897. 

Froude:    Cassar.      Scribners,  1879. 

Dodge:    Csesar.      Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1892. 

Van  Santvoord:  House  of  Caesar.  Pafraets  (Troy,  N.  Y.), 
1902. 

Fowler:    Caesar.      Putnams,  1892. 

Merivale:    The  Roman  Triumvirates.     Scribners,  1877. 

Holmes:    Caesar's  Conquest  of  Gaul.      Macmillan,  1899. 

Mahaffy:  Greek  World  under  Roman  Sway.  Macmillan, 
1890. 

Bossier:    Roman  Africa.      Putnams,  1899. 

Bossier:    Rome  and  Pompeii.      Putnams,  1896. 

Hall:  The  Romans  on  the  Riviera  and  the  Rhone.  ]\Iac- 
millan,  1898. 

Bury:   (Students')  Roman  Empire.     American  Book  Co.  1893. 

Capes:    Early  Roman  Empire.     Scribners,  1886. 

Mommsen:  Provinces  of  the  Roman  Empire.  2  v.  Scrib- 
ners, 1887. 

Firth:    Augustus  Caesar.     Putnams,  1903. 

Shuckburgh:    Augustus.      Unwin,  1903. 

Tarver:    Tiberius  the  Tyrant.      Dutton,  1902. 

Dill:  Roman  Society  from  Nero  to  Marcus  Aurelius.  Mac- 
millan, 1904. 

Gregorovius:    The  Emperor  Hadrian.      Macmillan,   1898. 

Bryant:    Reign  of  Antoninus.      Macmillan,  1896. 

Capes:    Age  of  the  Antonines.     Scribners,  1887. 

Watson:    Marcus  Aurelius  Antoninus.      Harpers,  1884. 

Firth:    Constantine  the  Great.      Putnams,  1905. 

Negri:    Julian  the  Apostate.     2  v.     Scribners,  1905. 

Gardner:    JuHan.     Putnams,  1895. 


APPENDIX  371 

Glover:     Life    and    Letters   in   the    Fourth    Century.     Cam- 
Dill"   Riman' Society  in  the   Last   Century  of  the  Western 

Empire.     Macmillan,  1899. 
Kingsley:    Roman  and  Teuton.     Macmillan,  1889. 
Hodgkin-    Dynasty  of  Theodosius.     Frowde,  1889. 
Villari-    Barbarian   Invasions  of  Italy.     2  v.  Scnbners,  1902. 
Hodgkin:     Italy  and   Her   Invaders.     8  v.   Frowde,    1892-9. 
Sheppard:    Fall  of  Rome.     Macmillan,  1861. 
Bury:    Later  Roman  Empire.     2    v.  Macmillan,  1889. 
Oman:    Byzantine  Empire.     Putnams,  1892. 

Roman  Antiquities —  ,      .   ^  *      •      •.•         o     u 

Ramsay-Lanciani :     Manual    of    Roman    Antiquities,     bcnb- 

ners,  1895.  ,   ^  »      •      •^• 

Smith:     Dictionary  of  Greek  and  Roman  Antiquities.     2  v. 

London:    Murray,  1 890-1.  _  ,•     •,     1, 

Seyffert:      Dictionary    of    Classical    Antiquities,     edited    by 

Nettleship  and  Sandys.     Macmillan,  1895. 
Schreiber:    Atlas  of  Classical  Antiquities.     Macmillan,   1895. 

Roman  Political  Development— 

Fowler:    City-State  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans.     Macmillan, 

Taylor:  Constitutional  and  Political  History  of  Rome.  Lon- 
don:   Methuen,  1899. 

Greenidge:    Roman  Public  Life.     Macmillan,  1901. 

Abbott:    Roman  Political  Institutions.     Ginn,  1901. 

Arnold:  Roman  Provincial  Administration.  London:  Mac- 
millan, 1879.      Out  of  print.  , 

Mommsen:  Provinces  of  the  Roman  Empire.  2  v.  bcno- 
ners,  1887. 

Seeley:    Roman  Imperialism.      Little,  Brown  &  Co.,   187 1. 

Social  Life  of  the  Romans — 

Guhl  and  Koner:    Life  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans.     Scnb- 
ners, 1889.  . 
Church:     Roman    Life   in   the    Days   of   Cicero.     Macmillan, 

1883. 
Fowler:    Roman  Festivals.     Macmillan,  1899. 
Ingram:    Historv  of  Slavery.     Macmillan,  1895. 
Rydberg:    Roman  Days.     Putnams,  1879. 
Thomas:    Roman  Life  under  the  Caesars.     Putnams,  1899. 
Johnston:     Private    Life   of   the   Romans.     Scott,    Toresman 

Inge:    Societv  in  Rome  under  the  Caesars.     Scribners,   1888. 
Pellison:    Roman  Life  in  Pliny's  Time.     Jacobs,  1896. 
Lecky:    History  of  European  Morals.      2  v.  Appleton,   1869. 

Roman  Literature — 

Mackail:    Latin  Literature.     Scribners,  1898. 

Cruttwell:    History  of  Roman  Literature.     Scribners,  1878, 

Simcox:    History  of  Latin  Literature.     2  v.  Harpers,  1883. 


372  APPENDIX 

Teuffel-Schwabe :    History  of  Roman  Literature.     Macmillan, 

1891. 
Tyrrell:    Latin  Poetry.     Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,   1895. 
Sellar:   Roman  Poets  of  the  Republic.     Oxford,  1881. 
Sellar:    Roman  Poets  of  the  Augustan  Age.     2   v.   Oxford, 

1877. 
See   also   translations   of    Roman   authors   mentioned   under 

"Sources." 

Roman  Art — 

Reber:    History  of  Ancient  Art.     Harpers,    1882. 
Burn:    Roman  Literature  in  Relation  to  Roman  Art.     Mac- 
millan, 1890. 
Wickoff:    Roman  Art.     Macmillan,   1900. 
Falke:    Greece  and  Rome:  Their  Life  and  Art.     Holt,  1885. 
See  under  Greece  for  other  histories  of  art. 

Roman  Law — 

Hadley:    Introduction  to  Roman  Law.     Appleton,  1876. 
Morey:   Outlines  of  Roman  Law.     Putnams,  1893. 
Muirhead:     Historical    Introduction   to   the  Private   Law   of 

Rome.     Macmillan,    1899. 
Howe:  Studies  in  tjie  Civil  Law.     Little,  Brown  &  Co.,    1896. 

Roman   Archeology — 

Lanciani:  Ancient  Rome  in  the  Light  of  Recent  Discoveries. 
Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,    1888. 

Lanciani:  Pagan  and  Christian  Rome.  Houghton,  Mifflin 
&  Co.,   1896. 

Lanciani :  Ruins  and  Excavations  of  Ancient  Rome.  Hough- 
ton, Mifflin  &  Co.,  1897. 

Lanciani:    Destruction  of  Ancient  Rome.     Macmillan,   1899. 

Mau:  *Pompeii,  translated  by  Kelsey.     Macmillan,  1899. 

Platner:  Topography  and  Monuments  of  Ancient  Rome. 
Allyn  &  Bacon,  1904. 

Lovell:  Stories  in  Stone  upon  the  Roman  Forum.  Mac- 
millan,   1902. 

Burton-Brown:  Recent  Excavations  in  the  Roman  Forum, 
London:  Scribners,    1905. 

Christianity — 

General  Church  Histories: 

Moeller:   History  of  the  Christian  Church.      3  v.  Macmillan, 
1898-1900. 

Gieseler:   Church  History.     5  v.  Harpers,  1857-79. 

Neander:    History  of  the  Christian  Religion  and  Church. 
5   V.   Houghton,    1853-4. 

Schaff:    History  of  the  Christian   Church.      7  v.  Scribners, 
1884-92. 

Alzog:    Manual  of  Universal  Church   History.      3   v.   Cin- 
cinnati: Clarke,   1874-8. 

Kurtz:    Church  History.     Lippincott,   i860. 


APPENDIX  373 

Milman:    History  of  Christianity.     3  v.  Armstrong. 

Milman:     Latin  Christianity.      8  v.   in  4.     Armstrong,    1881. 

Allen:    Outline  of  Christian  History.      Little,   Brown  &  Co 

1886. 
Allen;    Christian  Institutions.      Scribners,   1897. 
Fisher:    History  of  the  Christian  Church.       Scribners,    1887. 

The  Early  Church: 

Pressense:     Early    Years    of    Christianity.     4    v.    Methodist 
Book  Concern,  1873. 

Fisher:    Beginnings  of  Christianity.      Scribners,  1S77. 

Carr:    Church  and  the  Roman  Empire.      Longmans,    1902. 

Spence:    Early  Christianity  and  Paganism.      Dutton,   1902. 

Ramsay:     Church  in  the   Roman   Empire  before    170.      Put- 
nams,  1893. 

Gregg:    Decian  Persecution.      Blackwood,  1898. 

Healy:    The  Valerian  Persecution.      Houghton,  1905. 

Mason:     Persecution   of   Diocletian.      London:     Bell,    1876. 

Renan:    Influence  of  the  Institutions,  Thought,  and  Culture 
of  Rome  on  Christianity.      Scribners,  1898. 

Hardy:    Studies  in  Roman  History.      Macmillan,  1906. 

Uhlhom:    Conflict  of  Christianity  with  Heathenism.     Scrib- 
ners, 1879. 

Newman:    Arians  of  the  Fourth  Century.     Longmans,   1888. 

Gwatkin:    Arian  Controversy.     Longmans,   1889. 

Cutts:    St.  Augustine.     Young,  1881. 

Stanley:^  Eastern  Church.     Scribners,  1884. 

Smith- Wace:      Dictionary    of    Christian     Biography.     4     v 
Little,  Brown  &  Co.,  1877-87. 


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